As you know from my last blog post I am not the best sleeper and therefore am always looking for ways to improve my body's state of relaxation and rejuvenation. This is perhaps the number one reason I enjoy practicing yoga as it allows my mind to relax and focus on rejuvenating my body in a very specific way.
I am not going to try to convince you that rest is better for you than sleep, but I believe there is enough scientific evidence to state that rest is just as important as sleep is for your overall health and physical and mental well-being.
Let's face it, our lives are busy. There is always something to do, somewhere to be, and something that has to get done that we don't have enough time to complete. With all of that going on, we barely make it to bed in time to get 7-8 hours of sleep before we wake up the next day and start our busyness all over again.
But when do we take time to rest? And how important is it that we rest in addition to sleep?
U.S. sleep specialist Dr Matthew Edlund believes that rest is as important as sleep to our long-term health. In an article by Louise Atkinson, we see Dr. Edlund's journey of sleepless student, to sleep researcher, to sleep Dr., to finally coming to the conclusion that sleep isn't enough. Our bodies need intentional rest in order to rebuild and rejuvenate properly.
Edlund believes we need "active" rest which refers to an intentional and sometimes focused way of resting. Now this type of rest does not include watching TV or being a couch potato, but is broken down into four different rest categories: social rest, mental rest, physical rest, and spiritual rest.
For all of you extroverts out there, yes socializing can be a form of rest! Socializing has shown to actually be a very important part of health that yields real physical health benefits, not just emotional benefits. Studies have shown that social people have a reduced risk of heart disease, depression, and dying from a heart attack. Atkinson goes on to say that, "most researchers argue that social connections are at least as significant to your rate of survival as obesity or whether you smoke."
So socializing has more health benefits than we might have thought and gives a form of rest to your body that fights off harmful diseases and illnesses. So next time you are invited to hang out with your friends and you would rather just watch TV, maybe think twice about staying home.
Mental rest is another important way to rejuvenate our brains. Just as we exercise our bodies we also need to exercise our brain. The mental rest Dr. Edlund refers to is all about focusing our mind on one simple thing. Dr. Edlund's examples of mental rest involve breathing exercises and visualizing a beach on a sunny day. This type of rest helps refocus our minds as in our daily lives we are constantly multi-tasking. And yes, eating while you watch TV counts as multi-tasking.
Dr. Edlund's physical rest is not quite what it may sound like. Though it can refer to sleep it is all about using the body's natural processes and functions (such as breathing) to calm the mind and body. This type of rest can be done through simple and introspective movements and exercises. Physical rest can be accomplished through taking a moment to stand up tall and straight with good posture, being aware of your feet sinking into the ground and your head lengthening at the top of your body, and breathing deeply focusing on how your breath moves in and out of your body.
Another type of physical rest is the more usual one, taking a short nap. We are talking 15 - 30 minutes. These short naps have proven to have quite remarkable health benefits. Atkinson writes that, "A Greek study showed that a 30-minute nap at least three times a week cuts your risk of heart attack by 37 per cent, and a Nasa study found a nap of 26 minutes could improve work performance on some tasks by 38 per cent."
So next time you are thinking about a little nap during your lunch break, it may actually be a great option! Just don't nap too long. Keep it to 15 - 30 minutes for optimal health benefits and you might be able to fit in a 30 minute exercise session too. Because remember exercise is just as important as sleep. ;)
The last type of rest Dr. Edlund refers to is spiritual rest. This one may seem less appealing to some if you do not think of yourself as religious or spiritual, but spiritual rest does not have to do with spirituality as much as it has to do with learning how to let go.
In a Psychology Today article, Toni Bernhard J.D. talks about how "Not-Thinking" is important to mental rest and well-being and has to do with calming the process of discursive thinking. She says, "Discursive thinking—the constant stream of one thought following another—is a deeply ingrained habit. It’s so ingrained that we often start thinking just to occupy our minds."
Now don't get me wrong, thinking is fantastic! Thinking brings along new inventions and connections and eventually helped Pooh Bear figure out how he could get more honey. ;) But Bernhard believes that our minds need a break from this discursive thinking in order to truly rest.
Bernard describes Not-Thinking as being intentional about taking moments throughout your day to clear your mind of stressful or even just busy thoughts. She talks about letting your mind empty and allowing yourself to be where you are in the present moment without thinking about the past or the future.
Just to clarify, being in the moment does not mean thinking about what you have to "do" right now. Any time you think about doing, you are actually thinking of the future because it is not yet done but is going to be done. Being in the moment means being conscious of your being. Like tuning into the speed of your breathing or taking a moment to look outside and just see the landscape.
This spiritual rest can be seen as a form of meditative rest which has proven to increase the body's health in many ways. Dr Edlund points out that meditation has shown to physically expand certain areas of the brain. Atkinson states, "Brain scans have shown that people who meditate are able physically to expand parts of their brains, growing bigger, fatter frontal lobes - the part that controls concentration, attention, focus and where we do much of our analysis of problems."
Other research has shown that people who meditate are able to build up more matter in the brain that handles functions such as breathing and blood circulation, muscle co-ordination and active memory, as well as changes in the part of the brain that processes information flow from all parts of the body. Studies have also shown that the brain reacts similarly to prayer as it does to meditation.
Spiritual rest may seem to have the most interesting physical manifestations (like growing our brains!) but all these types of rest are very important in living a happy and healthy life.
Rest is just as important to our well-being as sleep though we may overlook it many times. And as we found out, resting doesn't mean you have to go on a 10 day vacation (though those are epic) it just means we have to be willing to be intentional and thoughtful about what our bodies need.
Take a moment today to give your body a rest and truly rejuvenate your mind. Push away the busy thoughts, the worry, and the distractions, refocus your mind and listen to your breath.
~Hannah
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