The world expects so much of you, from work to relationships to simple things like household chores. It’s no wonder you’re struggling with burnout. This is more than just feeling tired. Burnout is full-body, full-mind depletion that doesn’t go away after a good night’s sleep.
Whether it’s caused by chronic stress, poor boundaries, or a lack of self-care, it can take a serious toll on your day-to-day life. So how long does it take to recover from burnout, and what can you do to speed up your recovery rate and get back to feeling like your old self?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for how long to recover from burnout. The timeline is shaped by things like how long you’ve been burnt out, your recovery efforts, and more. We’ll cover all this below to help you set your expectations and jumpstart the recovery process.
But one of the best things you can do to overcome burnout quickly is making our fatigue defeating bath soak a part of your regular wellness ritual. It combines the most bioavailable magnesium chloride with Amino Tryptophan and Potassium. These ingredients work in synergy to refuel your body with the nutrients it needs most to fight off sluggish feels and faded energy.
Even just the act of taking 15-20 minutes to yourself to indulge in a warm, relaxing bath soak is enough to help restore your vigor. Learn more about how long to recover from burnout below!
“I absolutely love these soaks!!! Makes me very relaxed and comfortable after a hard stressful day!!” - Tina
“I love flewed they are all fantastic I take 2 of these baths a week, the Ache one after pilates is wonderful. The new fatigue one is fantastic!” - Bryce
“I love Flewd Stresscare! It helps me unwind and de-stress. I finish my baths feeling like a new person!” - Tammy
What is Burnout?
Burnout is what happens when your mind and body run out of fuel - completely. You’re quite literally running on fumes, or nothing at all.
We talk about this in more detail in our comparison of fatigue vs tired, but it’s not just about feeling tired. Burnout is emotional exhaustion, mental shutdown, and physical fatigue all rolled into one frustrating condition.
Common Signs and Symptoms of Burnout
Contrary to what you might assume, burnout doesn’t always hit like a wall. It creeps in slowly until the smallest task feels like too much. You might feel constantly drained, detached, or irritable for no clear reason.
Concentration gets harder as brain fog starts to become the baseline. No amount of caffeine can help you perform cognitively. You forget simple stuff, you snap at people, and you stop caring about the things that actually matter.
You may even notice yourself struggling to sleep - which creates a vicious cycle where burnout only progresses since you’re not recovering. At the same time, physical recovery falls short. So if you work out often, you could be at an elevated risk of injury - not to mention progress stalls.
Root Causes of Burnout
Burnout usually stems from prolonged stress with no time to recover. That could look like unrealistic deadlines, nonstop caregiving, emotional labor, or working in a high-pressure environment with little control.
Let’s face it - everyone’s busy, but not everyone deals with burnout. The difference is in feeling overwhelmed and unsupported for too long without a break. Even perfectionism or people-pleasing can play a role. You could be getting in your own way by not asking for help or feeling guilty about letting people down.
How Long Does it Take to Recover From Burnout?
So, how long does it take to recover from burnout? It depends on how bad it has gotten and how seriously you take your recovery. Most people start to feel better within a few weeks, but full burnout recovery can take months.
Let’s take a closer look at how long to recover from burnout below, starting with the most important factors at play.
Factors That Influence Your Recovery Time
A little burnout from a stressful week is different from being deeply depleted for years. Mild burnout might improve with rest and boundaries. Long-term burnout often needs bigger lifestyle shifts, sometimes even therapy or medical support.
How long you’ve been burned out has a similar effect on your recovery rate. Burnout is cumulative. The longer it’s been building, the more systems it affects - hormones, sleep cycles, even your brain’s ability to focus or feel joy. That all takes time to rebuild. Other factors ibnclude:
- Your Current Environment: Recovery will stall if you stay stuck in the same stress loop that got you here in the first place. Healing moves faster when you can change your environment, be it taking time off, adjusting your workload, or setting better boundaries.
- Your Support System: Recovery is easier when you’re not doing it alone. Having someone to talk to - a friend, therapist, or coach - can help you stay grounded and actually stick to rest instead of rushing back into overdrive.
- How Willing You Are to Slow Down: You have to actually give your body and brain the downtime they need. That means saying no more often, doing less, and learning to be okay with rest that feels “unproductive.”
All that being said, how long does it take to recover from burnout on average?
General Burnout Recovery Timelines
Your recovery is going to be highly individualized. But, these are some general timelines for how long to recover from burnout:
- Mild Burnout can start to lift within 2-4 weeks through consistent rest, better boundaries, and a few supportive habits. You may still feel tired, but your brain feels less foggy and your mood becomes more stable.
- Moderate Burnout that’s been brewing for months can take 6-12 weeks of focused recovery. This might include time off work, therapy, daily rituals for stress relief, and new habits to protect your energy going forward
- Severe or Chronic Burnout that’s been ignored for years can take 6 months or more to recover from. In some cases, it means reevaluating your job, lifestyle, or even core beliefs about productivity and worth.
You want to get back to feeling like yourself fast, but stay patient. There will be signs you’re on the right track. For instance, you could find yourself sleeping for the night and actually waking up feeling refreshed rather than waking up wired at 2 AM.
You may find that you feel excited about things again, your mood stays steady even in the face of stress, and focus comes more naturally and effortlessly. The journey back to baseline health isn’t always linear, though, so don’t be caught off guard by some ups and downs along the way.
Tips on Speeding Up Your Burnout Recovery Rate
Burnout doesn’t magically disappear. Those timelines we highlighted above for how long to recover from burnout assume you’re putting the work in to get back on track, giving your body and brain what they need to come back online. Here’s where to start.
Try Our Fatigue Defeating Soak
Burnout has a biological footprint, and one aspect that’s constantly overlooked is nutrition. Magnesium and other key nutrients like amino acids, electrolytes, and vitamins are the building blocks for your body to regulate mood, repair energy systems, and support restful sleep.
That’s why our new fatigue-fighting magnesium bath soak is such a powerful addition to your burnout recovery stack. It has 8x more magnesium than the average bath salt with zero filler, which is why it’s the #1 epsom salt substitute.
You get bioavailable Magnesium Chloride Hexahydrate to help regulate your stress response, Tryptophan to support melatonin production and better-quality sleep, and Potassium to literally recharge the mitochondria that create energy at the cellular level. Use our soak to:
- Beat mind fog and support mental clarity
- Promote deeper, more restorative sleep
- Support energy production for up to 5 days
The scent is like walking barefoot through a fig grove on a sunny morning: green, creamy, and subtly woody, with zero fake fragrance.
You’ll love how easy it is to use our stress relief bath soak, too! Just dump a pouch into a warm bath and soak for at least 15 minutes, longer if you can. Use it up to 3 times a week to create a rhythm and ensure your body is getting the nutrients it needs most to recover fast.
We recommend pairing it with a wind-down routine: dim the lights, skip the screens, and give yourself permission to actually rest. You’ll be on the fast track to feeling like yourself again!
Set Boundaries (and Actually Stick to Them!)
Burnout thrives in the absence of boundaries. It’s how you got here in the first place - you took on way too much. Get greedy about your availability and energy. Start small by blocking off downtime on your calendar. Say no without overexplaining. Mute notifications after hours.
Chances are you have an energy vampire or two in your life. It could be a person or simply a responsibility you’ve burdened yourself with. Don’t feel guilty about cutting ties.
Take Recovery Seriously
You can’t “push through” burnout. This is the problem a lot of people encounter. The thought of falling behind at work is too much to bear, so they try their best to rest and continue their typical routine. You’ll just end up spinning your tires and never get better.
This is a classic case of taking one step back so you can take two steps forward. That might mean taking a leave, scaling back responsibilities, or rethinking what “being productive” even looks like. Treat recovery like the real job, not the thing you do after work.
Nourish Your Body Through Diet
We touched already on how burnout drains your reserves (especially B vitamins, magnesium, and amino acids). Our bath soak is a great starting point, but you should rethink your nutrition as a whole.
Eat plenty of foods that replenish rather than just leave you feeling full. Think leafy greens, eggs, salmon, nuts, seeds, and complex carbs like oats and sweet potatoes. Skip the sugar-caffeine rollercoaster. Oh, and don’t overlook hydration, either.
Move Often (But Don’t Overdo it)
Burnout can make even light movement feel like a marathon. But movement is medicine, both for your body and mind.
That doesn’t mean you need to push yourself to the brink of exhaustion. All we’re suggesting is a gentle walk, stretch session, or restorative yoga. The goal is simply to reconnect with your body, get your blood flowing, and support better sleep and mood.
Address Sleep, Even If You Think You’re “Getting Enough”
Just because you’re in bed for 8 hours doesn’t mean your sleep is doing its job. Burnout messes with sleep quality, not just quantity. You might fall asleep fast but wake up wired, or feel exhausted even after sleeping in.
Our Insomnia Ending soak can help with this. Like our Fatigue Defeating formulation, it brings you bioavailable magnesium chloride along with Vitamins A & E, and L-Carnitine to ease your body and mind into a deep, restful state.
Pair any of our soaks with a wind-down routine that works. Limit screens, try to avoid bright lights in the house an hour before bed, and do something that leaves your mind at peace - journal, read, meditate, whatever it takes to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.
When to Consider Therapy or Medical Support
Sometimes, no amount of baths, boundaries, or naps will get you back on track. If burnout feels stuck and it’s something you’ve been dealing with for months, you may need to get professional guidance on the path to recovery.
A therapist can help unpack the deeper patterns and pressures behind your burnout. And if you're struggling with depression, anxiety, or sleep disorders, a doctor can help rule out underlying issues and get you the treatment you need.
Parting Thoughts on How Long to Recover From Burnout
So, how long does it take to recover from burnout? Don’t expect a good night’s sleep to have you back feeling like yourself. It takes time - sometimes, a few weeks. In other cases, it could be a few months to get back to normal.
You’ll feel the shift, slowly but surely, when you give your system what it’s actually asking for: rest, boundaries, nourishment, sleep, and support.
Our blog has more tips on how to combat fatigue from birth control or how to treat PCOS fatigue if you’re dealing with one of these burnout-related issues specifically. Otherwise, take the next step towards supercharging your burnout recovery at Flewd Stresscare.
Order a Fatigue Defeating soak and take the shortcut to beating burnout!
