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Why rest is not doing nothing

Opinion: If rest enables vital functions for our mind and body, why do we not place greater value on it? "It occurs to me that I am resting. It is not the same as doing nothing. Resting like this is something active, chosen, alert, something rare and precious". So writes Katherine May in her book Enchantment. Composers, orators and athletes similarly appreciate the precious nature of rest. Zen Buddhist teacher Haemin Sunim observes that what makes music beautiful is the distance between one note and another, what makes speech eloquent is the appropriate pause between words. Elite athletes place as much emphasis on sleep, rest and recovery as they do on training. But does rest feature in daily life for everyone? The big four In 1922, Swiss born psychiatrist Adolph Meyer argued that rest should indeed feature. He spoke of how human life was organised around rhythms – "the larger rhythms of night and day, of sleep and waking hours, of hunger and its gratification, and finally the big four-work and play and rest and sleep, which our organism must be able to balance even under difficulty." Balancing needs and demands in this way is indeed difficult, for individuals and societies. Millions of people around the world are experiencing ill-health and disease that can be attributed, in part, to patterns of daily living and living conditions that do not support wellbeing. Non-infectious diseases like ischaemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are forecast to be the top three causes of disease burden worldwide in 2050. Mental disorders are amongst the leading causes of disease burden globally. A greater focus on rest in daily life may be one way to mitigate these risks. From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, do our busy lives mean we overlook the recuperation benefits of just resting? The brain at rest Rest and sleep are often considered to be one and the same. However, they serve distinct purposes and accordingly both merit their respective place in daily life, as Meyer recognised. While the necessity for sufficient high-quality sleep is now generally well understood, although often still difficult to attain, the place of rest in the rounds of activity that make up our days has attracted less scholarly or popular attention, until more recently. Over the last 20 years, researchers have examined what happens in the brain during rest. In a resting state, awake but not engaging in any focused task or responding to external stimuli, the brain actively connects thoughts and experiences through its default mode network. At rest, when the mind wanders and daydreams, we reflect on our past and present, we think about our future. This regulates our mood and emotions and help us make sense of the story of our lives. If rest enables such vital functions, why do we not place greater value on it? Unrest Ironically, it is perhaps this fundamental feature of rest, this inward focus, sense making and reflection that deters us. When we stop and "do nothing", we think about ourselves and the world. Such thoughts can be overwhelming, not least when the world feels increasingly threatening and threatened. Unrest can feel like danger. Psychologist Sandra Parker writes that we are wired to remove ourselves from the discomfort of unrest, perceived as dangerous, with modern life providing innumerable exit routes, diversions and distractions. Making space for rest then means making peace with unrest. When we rest, we can notice sensations in the body, learn to distinguish danger from discomfort and soothe our nervous system. From RTÉ Radio 1's Reignite, What's the best way to spend your time given we only have 4,000 weeks on Earth? Writer Oliver Burkeman has some pointers. Too busy to rest Rest may also induce feelings of stress and guilt as Claudia Hammond found in the BBC Radio 4/BBC World Service The Rest Test, the world's largest ever study on rest, involving more than 18,000 people from 193 countries. Many people feel too busy, that there are simply not enough hours to meet the essential demands of the day, let alone make time for rest. 'To do' lists rarely get done. In part, this is because the possibilities for how we fill our time are boundless and increasingly boundary less. Remember when correspondence from the world beyond the office arrived once per day in the mail? Remember waiting to watch a favourite TV show when it aired once a week….and having to wait a further week to watch the next episode? Television channels stopped broadcasting as night fell. Businesses closed for lunch. Shops closed on Sundays. Nowadays, such external boundaries are fluid or largely absent, instead we must self-impose our own limits. Rest is radical Maintaining limits in this way may mean saying no to opportunities, no to requests, no to being 'always on'. It might mean letting go of attaching self-worth to busyness, productivity and self-optimisation, experimenting instead with saying 'I have enough', 'I do enough', 'I am good enough'. Letting go in this way is not a moral failing, observes Madeleine Dore, and may in fact be an invitation to others to stop too. Katherine May recognises that "doing those deeply unfashionable things - slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting - are radical acts these days, but they are essential." Poet David Whyte depicts the potential outcome of such radical acts. "Rested, we are ready for the world but not held hostage by it; rested we care again for the right things and the right people in the right way". If this is deemed unfashionable, it's time to start a new trend.