What I learned While Struggling with Sleep Apnea

When Hustle Isn’t the Answer: Lessons from a Season of Exhaustion

I kept telling myself it was the move.

We were smack in the middle of a cross-country relocation—my husband in South Carolina, me in Washington, juggling two homes and two time zones and what felt like a million logistics. There was always one more box to unpack, one more utility to set up, one more task to cross off the never-ending to-do list.

So when the exhaustion crept in, I chalked it up to life. The kind of tired that no amount of sleep or rest seemed to fix? I blamed stress. Or overwhelm. Or maybe just “being in a busy season.”

But months went by. Then a year. And no matter how much I rested, the heaviness didn’t lift.

What I didn’t know at the time was that I wasn’t just tired. I wasn’t burnt out from business or trying to do too much. I was struggling with undiagnosed sleep apnea—and for nearly two years, I had no idea. It wasn’t until a friend gently nudged me to look deeper that everything finally started to click.

And while this post isn’t really about sleep apnea, the truth is: the lessons I learned during that season? They’ve forever changed how I approach business, life, and especially burnout.

So, let’s talk about those.

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Stop into my YouTube channel for weekly videos about all things content marketing
• Check out the book Chasing Simple Marketing for a crash course in content marketing.
• Last Weeks Episode(Sustainable Boundaries to Help Break Up with Hustle Culture w/ Christi Johson) – a great resource for those struggling with business burnout with one of the best in the biz.
• Drop Christi Johnson a follow for more on business burnout – Christi’s Instagram
• Action Step: Create a Content Bank for yourself or beef yours Up
• Book Rec: She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica
• Want your own live coaching session? Apply here
• Find me on Instagram and tell me what you thought of this episode: @mrsamandawarfield

Don’t Dismiss Your Struggles

It’s so easy to explain things away.

I told myself over and over, “This is just a tough season. Once I’m settled, I’ll bounce back.” I thought I needed to simplify, hustle harder, or tweak my systems.

But I was avoiding the real question: What’s actually going on here?

We do this a lot as entrepreneurs. We downplay what we’re feeling. We assume the problem is surface-level, when really, the root issue is so much deeper.

Burnout doesn’t always look like burnout. Exhaustion doesn’t always mean you’re working too much. And overwhelm isn’t always solved by better time-blocking.

Sometimes, it’s a medical issue. Sometimes, it’s mental health. Sometimes, it’s trauma you haven’t processed yet.

If you’ve been brushing off your struggles, I just want to gently challenge you: what if you stop trying to fix the problem and start trying to understand it?

You Can’t Outwork Exhaustion

Not with more coffee. Not with better planning. Not even with the best time management system in the world.

I tried. Believe me.

But when your body or mind is truly depleted, the answer is n