Why Strict Fasting Can Bring Harder Struggles

You have explained very clearly a most difficult question, and one that, as we think, is unknown to many. So we beg you to add this too, for our good, and to explain carefully why it is that sometimes, when we are fasting more strictly than usual and are exhausted and worn out, harder bodily struggles are stirred up. For often, on waking from sleep, when we have found that we have been defiled, we are so downcast in heart that we do not even dare with confidence to rise, even for prayer. [a]