"Is it okay if I keep my camera off today?" "The moment the meeting ends, exhaustion hits me all at once." Now that remote work and online meetings are the norm, hearing this isn't unusual at all. You haven't moved, you've just been sitting in a chair, and yet somehow it's more draining than an in-person meeting. Online meeting fatigue isn't imagination — it's thought to come from the on-screen environment itself.

Why Online Meetings Are So Tiring

Research published in 2021 by Professor Jeremy Bailenson and colleagues at Stanford University laid out several factors behind so-called "Zoom fatigue." One of the more surprising findings is that the simple fact of "seeing your own face on screen continuously" can itself be a source of fatigue. People tend to unconsciously slip into a sense of evaluating and monitoring themselves when continuously looking at a mirror image of their own face, and sitting in front of this "facing mirror" all day is thought to create a distinct kind of exhaustion that doesn't occur in person.

Along with this, factors cited as compounding the load include the unusually close distance of a face filling the screen, the pressure of feeling constantly watched even while not speaking, and the physical constraint of barely being able to move your body. This isn't "not enough effort" or "a matter of getting used to it" — it's the view that the very format of screen-based communication has a load on the brain and autonomic nervous system built into it.

The Idea of Ringing Away a Year's Worldly Desires With a Bell

Japan holds an event called joya-no-kane, where a temple bell is rung 108 times on New Year's Eve. The number 108 is said to come from the belief that people carry 108 bonno (worldly desires, or delusions that disturb the mind), and with each ring of the bell, one bonno is said to be cleared away, letting you greet the new year with a refreshed mind. There are various accounts of its origin, including a way of counting that multiplies classifications of the senses and states of mind to arrive at 108.

The tension built up from facing a screen during a meeting, and the pressure of being watched that accumulates without you noticing, carry straight through into your next task unless you deliberately mark a turning point, the way joya-no-kane does. Just as ringing away one bonno at a time lets you release them at year's end, it's thought that inserting a small closing gesture each time a meeting ends is a piece of wisdom for keeping on-screen fatigue from building up.

Steps to Keep Online Meeting Fatigue From Carrying Over

Hide Your Own Face

Many meeting tools let you hide your own video, or shrink it down small. Even if others can still see you as normal, simply reducing the amount of "facing mirror" information reaching your own eyes is said to change the load you feel.

Look Away From the Screen Between Meetings

Rather than packing your schedule, once one meeting ends, take even just a few minutes to look away from the screen, at scenery in the distance or out a window. This not only releases tension in your optic nerve, but also has the effect of loosening the interpersonal tension that's been sustained.

Change Your Scent Before and After Meetings

Use scent as a switch for shifting between scenes: "this scent means work mode," "this scent means it's over." Compared to sight or hearing, scent memory is said to link more easily to emotion, making it an easy signal to use for switching gears.

Keep a Closing Ritual at the End of the Day

Closing your laptop, ventilating your room, burning a scent — decide on one gesture, however small, that tells your body "that's it for today." Giving a turning point a physical, outward form, like joya-no-kane, helps your mindset actually shift.

Reset With Scent

No.17 Deep Reset is a scent built to ease the load from digital environments. Lighting it between back-to-back meetings, or at the end of the day, works well as a self-care habit for shifting your mindset out of the tension of continuous screen viewing. This summer's No.17 Deep Reset bath salt also suits closing out your day with the same scent through a foot bath or a full bath. See the Reset Series

Summary

• Online meeting fatigue isn't imagination — it's thought to come from the on-screen environment itself
• "Seeing your own face continuously" is considered one factor behind a distinct kind of exhaustion
• Deliberately inserting a closing gesture, like joya-no-kane, is wisdom for keeping fatigue from building up
• Using scent as a signal for switching scenes is also a useful self-care habit

If time spent on screen keeps piling up into fatigue, also read Why Computer Work Leaves You So Tired | A Scent Habit to Settle Your Autonomic Nervous System and Why Focused Computer Work Gives You a Headache | EMF Care and a Scent-Based Reset Habit.

References: Research in cognitive science and human factors on the load of non-verbal communication in video calls, and folkloric findings on Japanese seasonal events.