Sleep vs rest

When we feel tired, we try to sleep, and after sleep, sometimes we still feel exhausted? Why? What is happening? 

We need to understand that this is because our body needs rest, not sleep. We may get this rest from sleep, but many times, this does not work. Sleep and rest are not the same thing, although many of us incorrectly assume that sleep is giving us rest.

We go through life thinking we’ve rested because we have gotten enough sleep — but in reality we are missing out on the other types of rest we desperately need. The result is a culture of high-achieving, high-producing, chronically tired and chronically burned-out individuals. We all have heard of sleep debt but in this case, we are suffering from a rest deficit because we don’t understand the true power of rest.

According to Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith, physician and researcher, rest should provide restoration in 7 key areas of our life:

1. Physical rest--this can be passive or active. Passive physical rest includes sleeping and napping, while active physical rest means restorative activities like yoga, stretching and massage that help improve the body's blood circulation and flexibility.

2. Mental rest--Many of us get irritable and have a difficult time concentrating at work, even at the start of the day. When we lie down at night to sleep, we frequently struggle to turn off the brain as conversations from the day fill our thoughts. Despite sleeping for 7-8 hours, we wake up feeling as if we never went to bed. It means we have a mental rest deficit.

To overcome this, we need to schedule short breaks every 2 hours throughout our workday which remind our brain to slow down. We can also jot down any nagging thoughts before sleeping that keep us awake.

3. Sensory rest--Bright lights, laptop screens and background noise, whether at home on Zoom calls or in office, can easily overwhelm our senses. Again, closing our eyes for even one minute periodically can give us good sensory rest. Intentionally unplugging from all the devices at the end of the day begins to undo the damage inflicted by our over-stimulating world.

4. Creative rest--This type of rest is especially important for anyone who must solve problems or brainstorm new ideas. Creative rest reawakens the awe and wonder inside each of us. Allowing ourselves to take in the beauty of the outdoors — even if it’s at a local park or in our backyard — provides us with creative rest. But creative rest isn’t simply about appreciating nature; it also includes enjoying the arts. We can turn our workspace into a place of inspiration by displaying images of places we love and works of art that speak to us. 

5. Emotional rest--each one of us depend on someone for help and similarly, they also depend on us for some other favour. So all of us get emotionally exhausted by the end of the day. Emotional rest means having the time and space to freely express our feelings and cut back on pleasing others. Emotional rest also requires the courage to be authentic. An emotionally rested person can answer the question “How are you today?” with a truthful “I’m not okay” — and then go on to share some of his hard things that otherwise go unsaid.

6. Social rest--When we are in need of emotional rest, we also need social rest. Need for social rest arises when we fail to differentiate between those relationships that revive us from those relationships that exhaust us. To experience more social rest, we should surround ourselves with positive and supportive people, rather than energy draining people. 

7. Spiritual rest--This is the ability to connect beyond the physical and mental realm and feel a deep sense of belonging, love, acceptance and purpose. To receive this, we should engage in something greater than ourselves and add prayer, meditation or community work to our daily routine.

As we can see, sleep alone can’t restore us to the point we feel rested. So it’s time for us to begin focusing on getting the right type of rest we need.

(Adapted from the Ted talk in Jan,2021 by Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith)