Are there really seven types of rest and are you missing out on any?
Have you ever found yourself still exhausted and deflated after an eight-hour sleep? Perhaps sleep isn't the reset you need.
Have you ever found yourself still exhausted and deflated after an eight-hour sleep?
It could be that sleep isn't the reset you need.
You may have heard of the "seven types of rest". It's the sort of concept that pops up on social media, podcasts or in an article from time to time.
You might have gotten eight hours in bed, but are you still feeling sleepy?
Daniel Martinez
But, how useful is the idea and can it help us look after and energise ourselves?
What are the seven types of rest?
The seven types of rest, according to internal medicine physician and author Saundra Dalton-Smith are:
- physical rest
- mental rest
- emotional rest
- social rest
- sensory rest
- creative rest
- spiritual rest
These are the premise of Dalton-Smith's book Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, published in 2017.
Dalton-Smith's Christianity is reflected throughout her book, but it's usually less dominant when the ideas are interpreted by others.
She recommends identifying the areas where you might have a "rest deficit" and prioritising activities that address it.
This is how Dalton-Smith describes the seven types of rest:
Physical rest includes sleeping and napping, but also "active physical rest" such as dynamic stretching and breathing exercises.
"Mental rest is your mind's comfort zone" and it might include meditating or blocking "low-yield activities" into 30-minute chunks (managing emails, menial office tasks or catching up on the news).
Emotional rest might be opening up with the people you feel most yourself around (and re-evaluating the time you spend with people who leave you anxious).
Social rest "will increase your sense of belonging and purpose" and could look like prioritising face-to-face time with someone who puts you at ease (perhaps a partner) or connecting with a community group or championing a meaningful cause you care about.
Sensory rest could include a set "unplugged" period of the day, balancing out a noisy period with some silence and enjoying periods of fresh air.
Creative rest could look like spending time in nature. Dr Dalton-Smith recommends building sabbaticals — as little as 30 minutes — into your life. In a 2019 TEDx talk, she says creative rest can also include "time spent enjoying the arts".
Spiritual rest includes activities such as prayer and journalling. It's about "[engaging] in something greater than yourself in your day-to-day routine", according to her TEDx talk.
Are the 'seven types of rest' useful?
The concept of self-care "gets thrown around a lot", but educational and developmental psychologist, Anushka Phal, questions whether people really know what it means.
Phal, who is based in Naarm/Melbourne, says concepts such as the seven types of rest can be helpful reference points.
She says many of the activities that fall under one of the types of rest are things that we ideally incorporate into our everyday lives anyway.
"I think sometimes we forget that we're working to live, not living to work."
While physical rest and mental rest are better understood, Phal says sensory rest is something we seem to struggle more with.
For example, she says it could mean turning notifications on your phone off when you're feeling irritated, overstimulated or burnt out.
The president of the Australian Association of Psychologists, Sahra O'Doherty, who lives on Gadigal land in Sydney, says the seven categories could make it easier for people to identify areas they might be missing.
While some of the activities that fall under "seven types of rest" wouldn't typically be called restful activities, she says they "allow us space to engage in something that might be restorative or allow us to get into a bit of a flow state".
