The quiet revolution of rest

'Take a rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.' Ovid

It's interesting to note that top athletes and sports people have a non-negotiable approach to rest and recovery in their training schedules. These time periods allow their bodies to strengthen and repair themselves between workouts or events. They also allows the athlete to recover psychologically and physiologically in order to be able to reach peak performance when required. These periods of downtime are not ad hoc, but are deliberately designed to integrate into the whole approach to training. They can be further divided into short-term and long-term recovery, which each have their own particular design aims to bring out the best in the athlete.

Enter as a counterpoint the experience of Arianna Stassinoppoulos Huffington, a successful individual by anyone's standard. She is a syndicated columnist and businesswoman, and co-founded The Huffingon Post. However, in her book 'Thrive' she recounts a watershed period in her life in 2007. Prior to this she had internalised the maxim that burnout and exhaustion were the necessary tradeoffs for success. In 2007, however, she passed out from pure sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and injured her head on her desk, sustaining a facial fracture. This spurred her into action to become CEO of Thrive Global and author a number of books to 'improve people's mental resilience, health and productivity in the new normal and beyond'. She styles herself as a sleep evangelist, and since prioritising sleep has found that this has allowed her to change her habits, and wake up to the day's possibilities rather than grinding through the day's agenda on a half empty awareness. This has also allowed her to better recognise danger signs of old unhelpful behaviour returning, and also to be more resilient in the face of challenges.

Sleep hygiene has been well known since the 1970s. Since then a set of principles have been applied to an individual's sleeping habits to successfully manage mild to moderate cases of insomnia.

Arianna has her own set of guidelines which have helped prioritise her own sleep:

1. Digital detox 30 minutes before bedtime (a blue-light emitting device affects your body's circadin rhythm, and should ideally be removed from the bedroom prior to sleep, in the event of being tempted to check messages en-route to the bathroom in the early hours of the morning).
2. Taking a hot bath before bed (this acts as a transitional action, which relaxes the body and mind prior to slumber)
3. Change into comfortable sleepwear (this signals to our brains the additional transition to bedtime, and that our body is in the process of gearing down from the day's events)
4. Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool (this has been shown to aid a better and less interrupted night's rest)
5. Avoid caffeine after 14:00 (this may be difficult for many of us, as we thrive on caffeine in an exhausted state. However excess caffeine disturbs our sleep quality, making us require more the following day and potentially setting up a self defeating cycle of over caffeination and sleeplessness).
6. Remember the bed is only for sleep and sex (other associations with the bedroom such as TV or work can add subconscious signals to our brains which might introduce work anxiety, or modulate our habits to anticipate digital entertainment).

While there certainly are other habits to inculcate regarding sleep hygiene (such as moderate daily exercise, deliberate stress management such as journaling and making lists), in an increasingly burnout oriented culture, let's start learning to thrive a little more each day by ensuring we get sufficient rest at night.

The issue of rest beyond a good night's rest needs to be explored at further length, but this challenge will be reserved for another article.

Good night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite...

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