Features Cover story Relax to the max We are finally getting a grasp of what rest and relaxation actually do to the brain and body. The insights could help us all turbocharge our downtime, finds Liam Drew sYOUReyesscanthese wordsand A this sentence, do youfeel you are resting? Theres oodreatonto, thinkyou might In2016,morethan 1,000 peoplerespondedtoa survey called The Rest Test whichasked them how they unwind. and thetop answer wasby reading This comes with caveats Satin Your sunny arden fondly perusinga copy of New cents Your respondin the firmativ. Buti Jousre student retearching nessa due tomorrow, the answers probably definite no, Whetheran activity is restflis larly contextual is also hugely subjectiv:in Tees Tet, many peopleveporedthat thelrfevoured fonmsoftest wereetther exercise orbecoming absorbed in work Such challenges are one reason why this topichasbeen rather neglected scientifically. inthepast researchers hadprferredto study the body orbrainengogingin active tasks rather than in dificult o-define dovintime.“inpsychology and cognitive neuroscience scentisteanbeblindto the importance of something lke res” saysErin Wamsley, psychologist at Furman University in South Carolina Sleep studies havebeenabonafide branch ofneutoscencefor decades but only now are 2host of new studles from multiple disciplines beginningtoetplan hy waking rests also important. When we choosetherghtactives Inthe ight doses, ret can bea vital process forthe optimal functioning of our bodes and minds, Ths inchides cur cspacty to recover salNewsclentist/2September 2009 from illnesses such as covidsg, whether we can maintain self-controland ourability to form stronger memories of things welearn. ‘Therighttorest has longbeena politcal and socialissue. "The institution of est breaks was absolutely crucialto the history oflabour relations,” says Felicity Callard, an interdiseiplinary researcher atthe University of Glasgow, UK, who is interested Inthehistory and sociology of science. Thisbattleis ongoing. France hasgiven workers the legal right tobe unavailable outside designated work hours, andseveral countries are exploring four-day work weeks. IntheUK, 61 organisationsacrossthe country recently trialled thedea and noted benefits foremployee well-being, Meanwhile, in the US politician Mark Takano has attempted tointroduce legislation to makea 32-hour week the national standard, which would probably involve working four days. In stark contrast, however, the state of Texas recently outlawed mandatory water breaks for people working in extreme heat ‘When it comes todefining rest, Claudia Hammond~a psychology professor at the University of Sussex, UK, and author of The ArcofRest~says people intuitively understand the word, but the struggles to pin it down precisely area major bartierto scientificinvestigation. The emerged for Hammond was; that s restorative, intentional, relaxing She emphasises that, to fully relax, people ‘must givethemselves permission to rest.“Microbreaks at work can increase vigour, reduce fatigue and improve well-being” Hammond was the lead investigator of ‘The Rest Test, which revealed just how wide. ranging and personal people’ favourite restful activities are. After reading, the most popular activities were—in order of preference— spending time in nature, being lone, listening to music, doing nothing in particular, agood walk nice hot bath, daydreaming, ‘watching TV and practising mindfulness. Fifteen per cent of respondents chose ‘exercising, which might seem likethe antithesis ofrest."Thereis a proportion of people who feel they can only est theirmind ‘when they exert their body” says Hammond. What's more, numerous people said doing nothing makes them restless The survey also investigated how the amountoftime spent pursuing restful activities was related to measures of ie satisfaction, The results were revealing. ‘eople who didn't feel inneed of more rest, and people who believed they got ‘more rest than other people, had wel: being levels twice ashigh asthe people ‘who didn’, says Hammond. You can have too much ofa good thing, however, since particularly high levels of test time were associated with lower levels of wellbeing. This may be because Jargeamounts of downtime imposed by ‘circumstances, suchas unemployment or illness, aren'tchosen. The optimalamount ofrest seemed tobe around sor 6 hours daily. These findings are consistent with other studies. In2009, arah Pressman, now at the University of California, rvine,and her colleagues found that people who engaged ‘more frequently in pleasurable leisure activities had lower blood pressure, lower slress hormone levelsand lowerrates of depression. A 2021 survey confirmed that havingtoolittle ortoo much discretionary timecan both decrease wel-being Interms ofhealth, rest haslongbeen associated with resisting, and recovering from, illness In the past, patients were often recommended "bed est” foreffective recuperation, but today itisviewedasa last resort, since lengthy stints of complete inactivity are now knownto diminish cardiovascular function, bonehealth and muscle function. ‘Nevertheless reduced energy expenditure ‘can helpthe body devote more resourcesto the Immunesystem, which helps fight infections more effectively. This may be thethinking behind the UK and Us recommendations forcoping withcovid-19. oththe National > 2 September 2025| New Scentst35The science of kindness Claudia Hammond will take you on: eye-opening tour ofthe science of kindness at New Scientist Live on 7 October newscientist.com/nsimag Health Service (NHs) and the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention (CDC) recommend that people should rest as much as possibleduring active infections to decrease the riskoflong covid, and also to manage this, chroniccondition fit develops. Unfortunately, the advice remains vague: neither the NHS nor the CDC specilies how we should rest, soit remains unclear what kinds of activities ‘weshould allow ourselves when we are ill, Rest and agood work-life balance are also Increasingly viewed as important means of protecting against stress-related illnesses, such as bumout, 2s well as maintaining ‘good mental health overall Occupational health psychologist jessica ‘deBloomat the University of Groningen inthe Netherlands studies how employees recover, day-to-day, from the stress of demanding. Jobs. Thereare six key aspects tothe most beneficial restful activities, shesays, but vital {s autonomy, the sense youarein control of what youare doingand who itis with (see "How to rest and recover’, below). The ideal microbreak Whileactually at work, we should consider {incorporating regular “microbreaks’~as briefs 10 minutes longfrom demanding activities, with studies showing that short periods of rest that are completely detached from your ob can increase vigour, reduce fatigue and improve overall well-being. “There's research showing that wetend topostpone breaks asa reward when we finfsh what we've got to do” says Hammond, Whereas microbreakstudies indicate that itis morebeneficialto build regular downtime into abusy schedule. "Neuroscientists have shown that continuous ‘mentally taxing work can even leadto poorer How to rest and recover ‘When faced with theresponsibiities happiness and well-being went ‘of workand family, many of us may back tobaseline within a week. lookto curholidaysasthebestchance Clearly, we need to find better torestore ourtodiesand minds, but _meansof resting throughout therest research suggeststheirbenefitsare _of the year. According to de Bloom, short-asting. When occupational _ the most beneficial “extracurricular” health psychologist Jessica de Bloom activities can becaptured by the atthe University of Groningeninthe acronym DRAMMA. "Netherlands questioned people Dstands for(psychological) before, during and after their js ‘vacations, she found that their thoughts ~ and Ris for relaxation, be Make sure yourrest lows yout distance yourself ‘rom negative thoughts ‘that getting amassage or just lounging around. The first Ais for autonomy. "Thisis the feeling that you're really in ‘contro that you can decide yourself 9) how toinvest your time and with ‘whom to spend your time" says de Bloom. "t's veryimportant” The two Ms stand for mastery and meaning, both of whichadda sense of value ‘to what we are doing. Mastery could involve learning new skils or getting fitter, while meaningful activities include volunteering or advocating for causes we believe in. Finally, thereis affiliation, which is a sense of social connectedness with either co-workers orpeople outside of work. salNew Scentst|2septemberz023 2 decision-making since itreduces “cognitive contro!’ whichis our ability to flexibly direct ‘our thoughts and behaviour in orderto reach long-term goal. “Cognitive controlis something we use any time weare not doing something automatic” says Antonius Wiehler, abehaviouralresearcherat the Paris Brain Institute-Forexample, learning the piano, whereevery movementisconsciously executed, requires this, whereas accomplished pianists can play without it. Making rational decisions, suchas choosing to takealarger rewardlater overasmaller onenow or selecting a healthy mealover pizza, also requires cognitive control. ‘Such decisionstypicaly get harder as ‘we become fatigued ~consider thelure of junk food aftera hard day’sslog. Wiehler’s research helps us understand why. Ina recent experiment, heand his colleagues asked participants to perform simple ordemanding taskson acomputer for 6.shours. For instance, each group would lookat long, continuous sequences of individual lettersthat flashed up every second. Foran easy task, the participant ‘had tosay ifeach new letter was the same as theprevious one; fora hardtask,they said ifit matched the onethree letters priorin thesequence. The harder tasks constantly required and so depleted ~cognitivecontrol Tomeasure the running-down of cognitive control, he computer periodically interrupted the participants oask questions such as “Would you like £22 now or £50 in six months?”.“Inthe morning, you're fresh. ‘Andyou know the optimum choice sto take the money late," says Wiehler. But the people doing exhausting tasks increasingly chose theimmediate rewards ofower value ‘Why would this be? Previous neuroimaging ‘workhad shown that diminished cognitive controlis inked to reduced activity inthe brain’lateral prefrontal cortex. One popular ideais that the energy stores become depleted inthisregion. Thishas been difficult to prove definitively, however, so Wiehler and his team looked for ather explanations. Using imaging tools hat measurelevels, of glutamate~the brain’ main excitatory neurotransmitterthey showed that people ‘who had done harder cognitivetasks had +igherlevels of glutamate in their prefrontal cortex than those doingeasy ones, and that theneurotransmitter was freerto difuse. ‘Theimplication wastthat perhaps itisthe build-up of glutamatethat causes reduction {in cognitive control. Wiehler’s study didn't provetthis, but itwasstriking that onlythe prefrontal cortex showed these changes. Alterations tothe metabolism and distribution ofthis essential neurotransmitter areexpected to disrupt neuronal function. Although theexact mechanism is ‘unclear, glutamate’ greater difusion rate suggests it ay accumulate outside neurons, ‘where it couldchange theiractivity. "There aretonnes ofexcting questions wating” says Wiehler, not least concerninghow brainsrecoverand how much est isneeded tomaintain or restore normal glutamate Jevelsandcognitivecontro Besides improving decision-making, regular periods of downtime may also ad eflective learning, Neuroscientists have long known that memory consolidation occurs dluringsleep, butnow studies suggest that waking rest canals strengthen thebrain’ records of what we have ust Jearned, Forinstance, just 5 minutes of quiet contemplation can help participants recall ‘morecontent fromastory they have ust heard, “Ifyou restfora few minutesafter youleam something’ says Wamsley, *yourmemory is better later. And not just immediately later—hours aterand dayslater” ‘heeft holds across numerous types cofmemory. including memories of words, navigation memory and procedural memory, suchaslearningnew physicaltasks. And theetfectisasstrongas that of sleep. ‘What's more, when researchers looked carefully at the bain’ electricalactvity uring wwakingrest, they found mostof the patterns Being able to ‘choose your own restful actvityis key tomaximising itsbenefits sleep researchers hadllinked to memory consolidation. "That biology occurs equally {requenty in wakingrestin both humans andanimals says Wamsley. Your offline brain She suggests there may be two main waking brain states, one “online” inwhich the brain attends to incoming sensory information, andone “offline” where internal processes dominate the brain's activites. To investi this, Wamsley tracked people's brain activity as they rested, using electrodes, placed on the scalp a techniquecalled électroencephalography,or EEG). At random intervals, she tested their reaction times ‘orasked them what they were thinking. ‘The offline state, says Wamsley, was characterised by longer reaction timesanda slower EEG pattern. In these periods, people ‘were also more likely to report daydreaming, She isnow gathering evidencethat memory consolidation occurs while in this state, Other neuroscientists have studiedthe te “If you rest for a few minutes after you learn something, your memory is better days later” brain ostensibly atrestusingneuroimaging toexamineactivty patterns while people simply lie down andstareatacrossona screen. They found that rather than the brain beinglargely inactive, there is Pronounced activity ina group of areas called the default modenetworkor DMN. Subsequent studies have suggested DMN activity is linked to the mind wandering “Weare constantly generating spontaneous cognitionand spontaneous brain activity, ‘which toa large degree shapes our experience ashumans” says Wamsley How DMNactivity and daydreaming ormind wanderingare linked to memory consolidation and alsojusthowmany types offline states, there are- needs more research, she ays ‘The DMN'discoveryrequiredthat scientists made the resting brainan object of study in ts own right~and notjust something tocomparean active brain with during ‘experiments. Wamsley saw that by comparing slumberingbrains only with active, awake brains sleep researchers had misseda vital between state of conscious restfulness. With Wiehler’s workseparately revealing the underiying nature of fatigue, perhaps itis time tobring ourideas on resttogether. ifitisplaced fully in the foreground, might asingularscience of rest one day emerge? Hammond hopes so, with disparateconcepts ofrest which currently fiton the edges ‘of multiple fields being pulled intoone coherent discipline Sleep. afterallhad once ‘been neglected, but is nowa major fieldof scientific investigation, andits health ‘benefitsare“now taken very seriously. as something that matters’ says Hammond “Rest inthe last five years, fees asthough ithas risen tothe top of somany diferent debates” saysCallard. “It intersects with debates around burnout, quiet quittingand people refusing hustle culture at work” Hammond suggests that younger generations may instigate greater valuing ‘ofrestand balance. When she was recently invited toaddress students at her former School Hlammondeexpected tobe asked to shareadvice on havinga successful career— ‘but no. “Isaid, What would you lketo tale about?"she say. “They sid ‘Oh, could you talkabout rest and kindness?" am Drew sa freelance science waiter based in Tube Wels, UK 2 September2on| New cenit 9,