Rest != Sleep

Rest is not equal to just sleep. Sleep alone is not enough as rest.

Besides physical rest like sleep, I read today that there are altogether seven types of rest. Quick rundown:

🛌 Physical rest can be passive like sleep and naps, and active rest, like yoga.
🧠 Mental rest like taking breaks from work/thinking.
👀 Sensory rest, away from bright light, loud noise.
🎨 Creative rest such as walks in nature, or enjoying the arts.
❤️ Emotional rest means having the time and space to be authentic to one’s own feelings.
👥 Social rest is about cutting back on socializing or people pleasing.
🧘🏻‍♂️ Spiritual rest is about connecting to larger purpose and sense of belonging to something larger than oneself.

I looove this framework. It reminds me of the eight forms of capital framework that I use to think holistically about life. So I’d been too limited in thinking about my “Biohacking sleep” goal, because rest is not just about sleep (even if it’s an important component of it)! Even if I manage my sleep well, I could still feel tired and un-rested due to missing the other six types of rest.

So using the framework, a thought audit on my current state of rest:

Physical rest - sleep is still in deficit. Not always able to get to bed by 11pm. Due to wanting to fix bugs, I’d not been allowing myself to nap in the day. Definitely more can be done, and done better. I don’t yoga or run, just some tiny workouts and stretching, which I should continue or even do more.

Mental rest - most self-employed/entrepreneurs have this problem – we never stop thinking about our work. I think deloading and taking mental breaks during the day and for the whole evening will help as a start.

Sensory rest - since the pandemic, sensory rest had actually been quite good. I don’t head out often, and for the past ten months, had only challenged the peak commuting crowd once. As WFH continues, I think this will continue too.

Creative rest - probably in deficit. I get my dose of creative rest sometimes from learning new, fun things for work, or working on my social impact projects. But not intentional about it for sure. Some nature would do me good.

Emotional rest - probably ok, but can be of course better. Sometimes caring for a young human being can take a toil on our own emotions, so more communication between my wife and I will help.

Social rest - similar to sensory rest, with WFH as the norm, social rest had been plenty. In fact, I’m quite enjoying not meeting people or having to socialize at all. Chatting online via text messaging doesn’t count, in my book.

Spiritual rest - I had my last retreat in Bali in Dec 2019, and after that I thought I’m done with retreats for a while. Who’d knew, 2020 had something else in mind. After all the disruptions and changes, I do feel like a retreat would be helpful, but without travel and with caring commitments for a baby, it’s likely near impossible.

So, in overview, out of the seven, I’m probably doing well in two (sensory, social), just ok in one (emotional), and in clear deficit for the remaining four (physical, mental, creative, spiritual). Not exactly a pass!

If a healthy, happy balanced life is what I seek, then I got build habit systems for the four deficit areas for sure. More to come!