5 Different Types of Rest We All Need
January 07, 2021
What better goal to start off the year than to switch up your routine to get good rest so that you feel refreshed to tackle on all that's to come! However, have you ever noticed - even when you try to make up for the lack of energy by sleeping more, you still feel exhausted, or worse, even more tired? What's the problem? Well, the secret is: Sleep & rest are not the same thing.
Is Sleep Enough？
Many of us wrongly assume that if we've gotten enough sleep, then we are well rested, but sleep is actually only one part of the resting process that we need. There are other types of rest we all desperately need, especially due to the fast-past, high-producing environment that we live in. We all suffer from time to time from burn out and rest deficiency because we aren't giving our bodies the actual rest it needs. Here are five categories of rest that we need to also incorporate into our lifestyle.
Physical Rest
The first and most obvious type is, of course, physical rest. That would include making sure that we are getting enough number of hours of sleep we require. For most adults, experts say that 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Then there are those occasional naps. For adults, make sure to keep naps how they are meant to be, short. Aim to nap for only 10-20 minutes. The longer you nap, the more likely you will feel groggy or tired afterwards.
Then there is active physical rest, which means doing restorative actives such as stretching to help improve your body circulation and flexibility. It is a good idea to take time each day, at least 15-25 minutes, to incorporate this into your schedule. If you still find a hard time sleeping at night, contact your health care provider. It may be due to some kind of deficiency such as magnesium deficiency. You may consider supplementing, such as
FarmHaven Magnesium, to help improve your sleep health.
Mental Rest
The second type of rest that we need is mental rest. Have you ever found yourself super wired, typing away, & staring at your monitor screen non-stop for hours until you get off? And then, you find yourself unable to turn off your brain from the conversations you had during the day or from thinking about the projects you still need to get done when it's time to sleep. When that happens, even if you sleep for seven to nine hours, you may still find yourself waking up feeling like you never slept at all. That, my friend, is mental rest deficiency.
So, it's not like we have to take a vacation every other week to fix this, which is just unrealistic. However, doing something as simple as scheduling short breaks throughout your work hours can help give you mental rest. You can take a minute every 30 minutes to look away from your monitor screen and do a quick stretch or take one every 2 hours to grab some water to hydrate yourself. Doing so can help improve your efficiency at work as well as your physical sleep at night.
Sensory Rest
What does that mean? In this time and age, electronics take up a huge chunk of our time. While working or at home catching up with friends & family or relaxing, we all seem to be glued to a screen. However, whether we realize it or not, all those bright lights, computer screens, noise from our surroundings & conversations can actually cause our senses to feel overwhelmed.
What can we do? You can simply just close your eyes for a minute sometime in the middle of the day. Schedule time, after work hours during your down time to unplug yourself from electronics, especially an hour or two prior to bed. In this way, we can undo some of the damage due to the over-stimulating world that we live in today.
Creative Rest
This type of rest is essential especially for those who need to constantly brainstorm new ideas for work. Imagine that feeling of awe and excitement when you looked at a specific breath-taking scenery in the past. Taking the time to allow yourself time in nature to take in the beauty of the outdoors helps provide us with creative rest. It can be as simple as a walk at your local park, your backyard, or around your block.
Aside from taking the time to go out to soak up & appreciate nature, creative rest also includes enjoying the arts. So switch up your workspace. Add some small office plants and photos of the outdoors/art all around you. Keep your work area uncluttered and clean. Spending 8 hours a day with a boring or jumbled surrounding will make it hard for anyone to think clearly, feel passionate about anything, and even come up with innovative ideas.
Emotional Rest
The fifth type of rest we need is emotional rest. So, does this mean that we isolate ourselves from others and become anti-social? No. It's something deeper than physically distancing ourselves from others. Emotional rest is the courage to be true to yourself. Many of us go throughout the day not really expressing our true feelings to others. However, an emotionally rested person would answer the question，“How's your day?" with an honest, "I'm not okay" and then go on to share their feelings. We all need emotional rest so that our feelings don't go unexpressed and bottled up inside.
Emotional rest also includes being able to differentiate what relationships energize us from those relationships that wear us down. This is not an easy decision, however if we want to experience more emotional rest, we need to surround ourselves with positive, up-building, & supportive people. That's not to say we leave our friends who may be going through a rough patch to fend for themselves, but because it can also take a toll on our emotional health as we try to help them, we need to take time to replenish our emotional wellbeing as well. So take the initiative to interact, even virtually, with those whom you respect & have a positive influence on you.
Feeling Motivated?
After reviewing each type of rest that we all need, I'm sure many of you would now agree that sleep alone is not enough to help us feel well rested. So now that you understand more about the other areas of rest needed, it's time to implement them into our lifestyle. Don't delay, start today!
