

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the most restorative of the five sleep cycles. In addition to daily rest and relaxation, it’s recommended that adults get seven to eight hours of sleep each night, but quality is just as important as quantity. For example, you could take a relaxing bath before bed, practice meditation each morning or go for a short walk during your lunch break at work. When planning out your daily routine, find a consistent time to rest. This could be meditating, practicing yoga, walking outside, listening to music, reading a book, taking a bath or any combination of these things. Why should rest be any different? Start by finding a relaxation technique that works for you. We make time every day to eat, take our kids to school, do errands and go to work. So, how can you better prioritize rest? Find small ways in which you can incorporate rest and relaxation into your daily routine. However, there are several benefits to daily rest and relaxation: It may not seem like a big deal to skip relaxation in your daily routine. If left untreated, long-term stress can cause chest pain, headaches, digestive issues, anxiety, depression, changes in sexual desire and inability to focus. In fact, if you are sleep deprived, your body will force you to sleep, no matter what you’re in the middle of. Unlike rest, sleep is something your body cannot function without.

It’s absolutely vital to brain function, memory, concentration, immune health and metabolism. Quality sleep can help us reset, recover and recharge. Sleep is an essential function of the body and impacts every system from our cognitive function to immune health. Sleep, on the other hand, is a body-mind state in which individuals experience sensory detachment from our surroundings. That’s why better rest is linked to better physical and mental health.

Regardless of how you choose to rest, these daily behaviors can help you recover and recharge from physical and mental effort. It can be active, such as going for a walk outside, or passive, such as taking 10 minutes to sit down and breathe deeply. Rest is any behavior aimed at increasing physical or mental well-being. Rest can be difficult to define because it can look different for everyone. Plus, prioritizing rest can actually improve your quality of sleep. Rest and sleep are two different things, but both are equally important to your mental, emotional and physical health. However, it’s so important to prioritize adequate rest and quality sleep in your everyday life.

Often, we only allow ourselves to truly rest on holidays or vacation. So many Americans are caught in the grind of work, family responsibilities and ongoing stress. Rest is vital for better mental health, increased concentration and memory, a healthier immune system, reduced stress, improved mood and even a better metabolism. About 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress, and up to 73 percent report that stress impacts their mental health. With the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic weighing on people over the last year, it’s more important than ever to advocate for mental health resources and daily routines that promote physical, mental and emotional well-being.Įven without a pandemic, Americans are stressed.
