Interoceptive Rest: A Missing Link for Neurodivergent Resilience (part 1)

Beyond "Take a Break"—Why Traditional Rest Doesn’t Work for Neurodivergent Minds

We often hear advice like “Just take a break” or “Get some rest” when we feel exhausted. But for many neurodivergent individuals, this advice feels frustratingly unhelpful. What does rest actually look like when your body struggles to recognize fatigue, when your mind won’t slow down, or when sensory overload makes stillness unbearable?

At Neurodiversity Education Academy, we explore interoception—the 8th sense responsible for detecting internal body signals like hunger, thirst, temperature, and fatigue. Many neurodivergent individuals experience interoceptive differences, meaning they may not realize they’re tired until they’ve hit a wall, or they may misinterpret body signals—mistaking anxiety for hunger, or sensory overload for energy.

This article builds on our past discussions on interoception by exploring interoceptive rest—a practice of tuning into internal signals and integrating rest into our daily routines, rhythms, and rituals to build long-term resilience.

Rest is often framed as a luxury, something we earn after exertion. But for neurodivergent individuals—whose nervous systems process the world differently—rest is not optional. It is foundational.

“Rest is not idle, not wasteful. Sometimes rest is the most productive thing you can do for your body and soul.” — Erica Layne

For neurodivergent individuals, resilience isn’t just about bouncing back—it’s about sustaining our capacity to engage with the world in ways that honor our nervous system’s needs. However, mainstream notions of rest often fail to account for the unique ways our bodies and minds process sensory, cognitive, and emotional input.

Rest, especially interoceptive rest, isn’t just about sleeping or taking a break. It’s about deep attunement to the body’s internal signals—the subtle (or not so subtle) cues telling us when we need to slow down, reset, or engage in restorative practices. But for many neurodivergent individuals, interoceptive awareness is disrupted—we may not notice hunger until we’re famished, thirst until dehydration sets in, or fatigue until burnout forces us to stop.

True neurodivergent rest is about recalibrating the nervous system in ways that work with, rather than against, interoceptive differences.?

But before we get into that, let’s first deepen our understanding of interoception.

Unraveling the Intricacies of Interoception

Interoception is the fascinating science of how our nervous system monitors and interprets signals from within our bodies—like our heart rate, respiration, hunger, and visceral sensations—to create an understanding of our internal physical state. This 'inner sense' is a crucial player in emotional awareness, self-regulation, and decision-making.

Researchers differentiate between:

• Interoceptive accuracy: This is the tangible ability to detect and correctly identify internal bodily signals. Essentially, it's how accurately someone can sense their own heartbeat, breathing, or other internal feelings. High interoceptive accuracy indicates that a person can reliably detect these internal signals, which can be vital for regulating physical states and may affect how emotions are experienced. However, having high accuracy does not automatically mean that the person is consciously attending to or interpreting these signals in a meaningful manner.
• Interoceptive awareness: Interoceptive awareness is more about the subjective, conscious experience of those internal signals. It shows how much attention someone pays to their bodily sensations and how well they can interpret or make sense of these signals in everyday life. A person may report high interoceptive awareness—meaning they feel very attuned to their internal states—even if they aren’t particularly accurate in detecting these signals on objective tests. On the other hand, someone might be very accurate in detecting subtle bodily cues but not habitually pay attention to or reflect on them. This difference is crucial as it can influence emotional regulation, decision-making, and even susceptibility to anxiety or other emotional disorders.
• Metacognitive interoceptive awareness: This refers to an individual’s insight or understanding of their own interoceptive abilities—that is, how accurately they believe they can detect and interpret signals from their internal bodily states. This concept goes beyond merely measuring the ability to sense bodily signals (interoceptive accuracy) or the degree to which one pays attention to these signals (interoceptive awareness). It involves a reflective, evaluative component about one’s own performance in detecting these signals.

Key Components:

• Self-Evaluation: This is the level of confidence or certainty someone has in their perception of internal bodily cues.
• Insight into Performance: This is the awareness of one’s strengths and limitations in detecting and interpreting bodily signals.

Understanding Metacognitive Interoceptive Awareness: Implications for Neurodivergent Individuals

Have you ever considered the profound implications of our ability to sense, interpret, and trust the signals our bodies send us?

Metacognitive interoceptive awareness—our ability to accurately sense, interpret, and trust our internal bodily signals—has profound implications for neurodivergent well-being, self-regulation, and self-advocacy. Neurodivergent people often experience a misalignment between how accurately they can detect bodily signals (interoceptive accuracy), how much attention they pay to these signals (interoceptive awareness), and how confident they are in understanding these signals (metacognitive interoceptive awareness). These can have substantial impact on daily functioning, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

1. The Complexities of Emotional Regulation and Decision-Making

Did you know that neurodivergent individuals often have a heightened sensitivity or a reduced awareness of internal bodily cues? This makes emotional regulation more challenging. Some may struggle to recognize signals like hunger, fatigue, or emotional distress, while others may feel overwhelmed by bodily sensations without understanding how to interpret them. This connection between interoception and emotional awareness can affect how individuals recognize and manage their emotions, making it a critical aspect to consider when enhancing emotional literacy and self-regulation.

?? Takeaways:

• Learning to differentiate between sensory overload and emotional dysregulation can help pinpoint whether one needs rest, sensory modulation, or emotional processing.
• Trusting one's bodily signals can improve decision-making, especially in high-stakes or emotionally charged situations.
• Recognizing the connection between bodily sensations and emotions allows for earlier intervention, reducing instances of meltdowns, shutdowns, or burnout.

?? Practical Applications:

• Being able to articulate specific interoceptive challenges can help in seeking accommodations (e.g., “I struggle to notice thirst, so I need external reminders to stay hydrated”).
• Understanding one's energy patterns allows neurodivergent individuals to request flexible schedules or structured breaks based on their natural rhythms.

2. The Clinical Relevance: Anxiety, Depression, and Neurodivergent Experiences

Methods such as mindfulness, biofeedback, and therapies focusing on body awareness are being explored to help individuals better tune into and interpret their internal bodily signals. For some neurodivergent individuals, these interventions may promote improved emotional regulation and alleviate anxiety.?

• Heightened interoceptive sensitivity without accuracy can lead to health problems. For example: Sensing every heartbeat but misinterpreting it as a panic attack can lead to chronic anxiety or health-related fears.
• Reduced interoceptive awareness (e.g., not registering hunger or fatigue) can contribute to emotional dysregulation, burnout, or difficulty identifying stress before it escalates.

For individuals with autism, ADHD, and sensory processing differences, understanding these discrepancies can validate experiences that are often misunderstood.

?? Takeaways:

• Many neurodivergent individuals dismiss their own needs because they’ve been told they’re “too sensitive” or “not paying attention.” Learning about interoceptive differences validates these experiences and supports self-trust.
• For those with alexithymia (difficulty identifying emotions), recognizing interoceptive patterns can help create external strategies (e.g., body-based emotion charts, somatic journaling).

?? Practical Applications:

• Educating healthcare professionals and therapists about interoceptive challenges can lead to more effective treatment plans that don’t rely solely on verbal emotional identification.
• Identifying personal interoceptive patterns can help set boundaries in relationships, school, and work, such as advocating for low-stimulation environments or flexible pacing.

3. Tailored Interventions: How Neurodivergents Can Strengthen Interoceptive Awareness

Traditional mindfulness approaches don’t always work for neurodivergent individuals—sitting still and focusing on the breath can sometimes increase distress rather than reduce it. Instead, tailored interoceptive interventions can help individuals develop both interoceptive accuracy and confidence in their bodily signals. Recognizing that interoceptive processing may vary in neurodivergent populations highlights the need for personalized strategies. Some individuals may benefit from interventions aimed at improving interoceptive accuracy, while others may require assistance in modulating an overly sensitive interoceptive system.

??Takeaways:

• Non-traditional mindfulness techniques (such as fidgeting while focusing on bodily sensations or using movement-based meditation) may be more effective for ADHDers and sensory-seekers.
• Biofeedback tools can help validate bodily sensations in real-time (e.g., seeing heart rate patterns on a screen can confirm whether sensations match emotional states).
• Developing a “body dictionary” can help track patterns of energy, emotion, and sensory input to make interoceptive signals easier to recognize.

?? Practical Applications:

• In healthcare settings, broadening the understanding of interoceptive differences can help prevent misdiagnosis or dismissal of symptoms (e.g., “I struggle to feel pain consistently, so I need objective monitoring for medical issues”).
• In therapy, working on metacognitive insight—not just awareness but confidence in bodily cues—can support emotional regulation strategies that actually align with neurodivergent needs.
• In education or workplaces, advocating for structured sensory check-ins or flexible self-regulation strategies can improve engagement and reduce exhaustion.

4. Research and Future Directions: A More Nuanced Understanding of Neurodivergent Interoception

Better measurement of metacognitive interoceptive awareness could transform interventions for neurodivergent individuals. Many current assessments fail to capture the complexity of how interoception functions in neurodivergent populations.

?? Takeaways:

• A more refined model of interoception could help neurodivergent individuals identify whether their challenges stem from signal detection, interpretation, or regulation.
• Understanding how interoception intersects with executive functioning could provide better strategies for structuring daily life in ways that support regulation.

??Practical Applications:

• Research that validates neurodivergent interoceptive differences can support systemic changes in how schools, workplaces, and healthcare providers accommodate sensory needs.
• The development of new paradigms for neurodivergent well-being—including adaptive interoceptive training—could shift the conversation from deficit-based models to strength-based approaches.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Download the 5-page worksheet on TUNING IN: Understanding and Trusting Your Body's Signals.

Download the worksheets here

One-Minute Summary: Harnessing Metacognitive Interoceptive Awareness for Self-Trust and Self-Advocacy

Research has identified three distinct facets of perceiving internal body signals:

• Interoceptive accuracy: The ability to accurately identify bodily signals.
• Interoceptive awareness:The level of attention or personal significance ascribed to these signals.
• Metacognitive interoceptive awareness:The ability to comprehend and evaluate one's proficiency in identifying internal body signals.

Understanding the nuances of interoception underscores the fact that being "in tune" with one's body relies on both precise signal detection and the mindful interpretation of these signals. These elements can function independently, and enhancing our understanding of metacognitive interoceptive awareness allows us to cultivate practices that not only improve the detection of bodily signals but also heighten self-evaluation accuracy, paving the way for improved mental health outcomes.

For neurodivergent individuals, understanding the influence of interoception on emotional regulation, decision-making, and well-being becomes a valuable tool.

?? Insights:

• Do you often misinterpret or struggle to trust your body’s signals? You're not alone—this is a common experience among neurodivergent communities.
• The practice of identifying and naming interoceptive patterns can foster self-awareness and alleviate frustration due to emotional dysregulation.
• The goal of honing interoceptive awareness isn't about correcting your bodily senses—it's about appreciating and working with your unique signals.

??Application:

• Stand your ground - you don't need to explain your need for accommodations, be it extra time for sensory resets, alternative rest practices, or flexible schedules.
• Enlightening doctors, therapists, and teachers about interoceptive differences can result in enhanced support, reduced misinterpretations, and more tailored interventions.
• Research in metacognitive interoception can help reframe neurodivergent challenges as differences, not deficits, fostering greater self-trust and empowerment.

By nurturing interoceptive accuracy, awareness, and self-trust, neurodivergent individuals can foster a deeper, more compassionate relationship with their bodies, enabling greater autonomy, resilience, and well-being.

Rest as a Neurodivergent Rebellion

When interoception is heightened or diminished, as is often the case in neurodivergent individuals (especially those with ADHD, autism, or sensory processing differences), rest can feel either inaccessible or ineffective.

Interoceptive rest, then, is not just passive relaxation; it’s a practice of actively tuning in to the body’s needs and responding with restorative actions. It involves:

• Recognizing signs of overstimulation or depletion before they escalate
• Engaging in body-based self-awareness practices that support nervous system regulation
• Reframing rest as an essential part of resilience, not as a reward for productivity

In a world that glorifies productivity and urgency, embracing rest is a radical act of self-preservation—especially for neurodivergent individuals whose nervous systems operate on different rhythms. Interoceptive rest invites us to shift from ignoring our body’s needs to intentionally tending to them.

Read our other posts on Interoception:

Part 1: Exploring our Eight Sense-Interoception, Part 2: Expanding our Interoceptive Awareness (Part 2), Part 3: Tips to Teach Interoception At Home and In School, and Part 4: Interoceptive Awareness Process to get a broader understanding of Interoception.

Stay tuned for Part 2 Preview: Designing Interoceptive Rest into Daily Life

Understanding why neurodivergent rest is difficult is the first step. The next step is designing rest into our daily lives in ways that work for us.

In Part 2, we’ll explore:

? Routines: How predictable rest rituals help externalize interoceptive awareness

? Rhythms: How to align rest with natural energy cycles instead of forcing productivity

? Rituals: How to create sensory-friendly, structured rest that supports nervous system regulation

WHAT'S NEXT? Join us for our upcoming events

• Are your rhythms, routines, and rituals working with?you or against?you? Join us for a free one-hour NEA Community Gathering this February as we explore the interplay between rhythms, routines, and rituals—and how they can help us navigate transitions with greater ease and intention.

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