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2. What Is Rest?

Rest is a period of inactivity during which the faculties can restore expended nerve energy. When we create wastes faster than our body can eliminate them and deplete our energies faster than our faculties can restore them, a period of inactivity enables the body to catch up on its homework. Physical and mental inactivity can be called rest.

There are many different kinds of rest. Some are:

  1. Physiological rest, during which the body and most of its faculties are inactive, as in sleep and in fasting.
  2. Sensory rest, during which time the nervous system and brain are relaxed or not normally exerted, as in fasting, sleep and meditation. The eyes are closed in sleep and meditation, which curtails a great drain of energy.
  3. Emotional rest, as in withdrawal from the affairs and excitants of daily life that draw upon our nerve energies.
  4. Mental rest, as in eschewing those affairs that demand our attention and thoughts.
    Essentially, rest is the curtailment of energy expenditure and waste generation. This permits the body to redirect energies to cleansing and restoration.

2.1 Relaxation as Rest

To relax means to cease or decrease exertion. The word has broad connotations, and recreation or play might be called relaxation. Generally, relaxation means to let go of that which stresses the body and to undertake a course that does not tense or stress. Relaxation is a variant form of rest.

2.2 Only the Body Needs Rest

The cells of the body require rest but not necessarily sleep, but the brain and nervous system sleep. Cells require periodic rest so that they may cope with their eliminative and restorative functions.

2.3 Rest is Incidental to Sleep for the Most Part

Many people are apt to confuse the words rest and sleep as being synonymous. Rest, as we have seen; means cessation of activity. Sleep necessarily implies rest due to the immobilization of the body, but the condition of sleep exists only when consciousness has ceased. However, we should note that not all forms of unconsciousness are sleep. Coma, catalepsy and stupor must not be confused with sleep.