Book excerpt: We all know what it is to be exhausted: fatigue seems to be a normal part of human experience when we are overactive, have physical or emotional problems, face stress, or suffer from insomnia. Some of us, in fact, suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (ME), an illness characterized by pervasive fatigue that produces significant disability and lasts more than six months. In this book, a specialist in fatigue disorders discusses all kinds of fatigue problems, explaining what fatigue is, what causes it, how to combat it, and what patients should know when consulting a doctor about symptoms.