Deliberate Rest: Making Room for Work and Recovery

What the resting brain is doing

Expecting sustained work without recovery is like expecting a horse to run without feeding it. Rest is not an absence of useful activity, and a resting brain is not an idle brain. Different systems take on different roles.

The attention network and the default mode network are two important brain systems. Research describes them as serving different functions and showing opposing patterns of activity. When we consciously concentrate on something, attention networks are active. When we rest and our attention becomes more diffuse, the default mode network becomes active.

Default mode network activity has been associated with creativity. This connection is one reason the book’s author emphasizes rest: creativity has become an increasingly important competitive advantage. The association matters, though it does not mean that every break necessarily produces a creative breakthrough.

The default mode network is also linked to internal mental activities such as inferring other people’s beliefs and intentions, remembering the past and imagining the future. Alongside those inward-looking functions, it is described as monitoring the outside world for unexpected events.

These internal and external processes work together. By integrating information from the environment with internal resources, the network helps us respond to a changing world. This capacity is thought to have important evolutionary value, supporting survival, decision-making, planning and adaptive behavior.

Rest, then, has a place in how we process experience. Focused work calls on attention systems; rest allows other activity to come forward, helping us absorb information we have acquired and use it in decisions and plans. That is a reason to arrange rest deliberately. But making room for it also requires looking at how we work.

Organize work so recovery has room

Allow for the limits of concentration

The familiar idea of 10,000 hours of practice tells only part of the story of exceptional achievement. Deliberate practice requires full concentration, and the amount of time we can sustain that concentration each day is limited. More practice can eventually mean an overworked brain rather than better practice.

The proposed daily period of effective practice is roughly four hours, based on the working patterns of athletes, writers, musicians and others. We might therefore understand the 10,000-hour figure more broadly: 10,000 hours of deliberate practice accompanied by 12,500 hours of deliberate rest and 30,000 hours of sleep.

The point is to include the recovery that accompanies sustained effort. Four hours here refers to demanding, concentrated work or effective practice; it does not account for every administrative or routine task in a working day.

Consider an early start—if it suits you

The book’s author found that many distinguished writers and researchers began work early, generally before 6 a.m., with starting times ranging from 4 to 6 a.m. One obvious advantage is fewer interruptions from other people.

The other explanation offered concerns circadian rhythms: the approximately 24-hour patterns that influence energy, hormones and other bodily functions. The account places those early hours at a circadian low and argues that creativity is highest at that low point.

On that reasoning, an early start may be worth trying if your work makes strong demands on creativity and you are naturally a morning person. The qualification matters. Adjust the schedule to your circumstances; the original writer tried it and found that it did not suit them.

Starting at 4 or 6 a.m. could mean completing two to four hours of focused work by 8 a.m.—most or all of the proposed daily target. Routine and administrative tasks can occupy other parts of the day. This division also makes it easier to identify and protect recovery time outside the concentrated work period. Perhaps it helps explain the output of some writers who write alongside another job.

Build a routine instead of waiting for inspiration

Regularity matters as much as the starting hour. Writers value inspiration, but they cannot summon it on command. Their response is to keep writing rather than sit and wait for it.

As a German sociologist argues, everyday work can stimulate creativity, rather than creativity simply setting work in motion. Related research reports that more creative employees have a higher proportion of routine in their work.

A daily habit also reduces the need to draw repeatedly on willpower, persistence and intrinsic motivation. Those resources can then be saved for the difficult problems that require them.

Stop with an easy next step waiting

Think about when a task feels easiest to begin. Usually, it is when you already know how to proceed. The complicated thinking and planning have happened beforehand.

You can create that condition for your next session at the end of the current one. Stop when a task is nearly finished, leaving a small piece that will take little additional thought to complete. The difficult conceptual work is already behind you, and the remaining step gives you an accessible way back in.

That small unfinished piece is useful precisely because it is manageable. Completing it can help the next work session gather momentum.

Sleep is active restoration

Sleep is the body’s built-in form of restorative rest. Since the 1930s, sleep scientists have increasingly recognized it as an active process. While we sleep, the brain is busy repairing damage, replacing cells, clearing toxins, integrating memories and producing dreams.

According to the original writer, deep sleep begins about 15 minutes after falling asleep; the appearance and deepening of delta waves correspond to stages three and four, respectively, with spindle and spike waves assigned to stage three and slow-wave sleep to stage four.

Rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, follows deep sleep and is when most dreams occur. Together, slow-wave and REM sleep are said to be principal periods for brain development and repair, memory restoration and dreaming.

Sleep’s restorative work is also said to involve hormone release, biochemical reactions and glial-cell activity. During slow-wave sleep, the brain releases growth hormone-releasing hormone, or GHRH, to support development. During REM, complex biochemical reactions are described as making the brain itself more complex.

During sleep, oligodendrocyte precursor cells, or OPCs, are said to produce myelin that protects nerve-cell axons and supports their normal functioning when we are awake. Astrocytes are described as guiding cerebrospinal fluid to carry nutrients, clearing waste, blocking bacteria and stimulating neuronal regeneration. The account also links glial cells’ clearance of beta-amyloid to a reduced risk of dementia in old age.

The consequences of insufficient sleep make the importance of restoration especially clear. Sleep loss can seriously impair decision-making, comprehension and the ability to carry out tasks. According to the original writer, extensive evidence from military activities demonstrates these impairments, and research shows that even a brief rest when drowsy can substantially improve performance.

There is no need to apologize for a nap

Naps are an ordinary habit for some people and a source of difficulty for others, including the original writer. Meanwhile, some people seem able to stay energetic all day without one. It is hard not to envy them.

Yet the book describes Churchill and Kennedy among the prominent people who habitually napped. Many creative people and workaholics also deliberately make space for naps in their schedules.

Naps can do more than relieve fatigue. They can improve alertness, memory and cognition, reduce mistakes and undesirable behavior, and extend the part of the day available for work. Some people also use them to help prompt insights. The original writer, for example, reports completing much of the reading and conceptual work for their article after their midday rest.

None of this requires everyone to follow the same nap routine. It does give us a reason to take naps seriously rather than automatically regard them as a failing.

Recovery through detachment and deep play

Recovery is active in another sense: getting the most from it requires effort in arranging restorative activities. Sleep is one way to recover, but what makes other activities helpful?

The research discussed here identifies four elements: relaxation, control, mastery experiences and psychological detachment.

Relaxation requires little deliberate effort during the activity itself. It is described as combining relatively low brain activation with relatively high positive emotion. Walking is a typical example. Planning an opportunity to relax can be deliberate even when the relaxing activity feels easy.

Control means being able to decide how to spend your time and allocate your energy and attention.

Mastery is a distinct experience: the satisfaction of engaging with a challenge. Challenging activities during time off can be especially valuable for this reason.

Detachment means being able to disconnect from work. Your ability to disconnect determines how well you recover during a short break. Duration alone may matter less than whether you actually disengage. If you can leave work behind, a few nights away, a few weeks away or a longer holiday might offer comparable recovery benefits.

These four elements can work together. Regularly and decisively putting work aside, cutting off contact with the office in the evenings or on weekends, and choosing activities that engage the mind and challenge the body can replenish psychological resources and support more effective work.

Perhaps tackling a challenging Soulslike game belongs somewhere in this picture?

The book’s author describes four characteristics of particularly restorative activities: substantial mental engagement, opportunities to use skills resembling those used at work, positive feedback and a connection with past experiences. Activities with these qualities are called “deep play.” Examples include marathon running, painting, sailing and rock climbing.

Using a familiar kind of skill does not require staying connected to the job itself. Deep play can engage several recovery elements at once, making an absorbing challenge a way to restore energy.

The final example is academic leave, or a sabbatical, which serves a different purpose from ordinary leisure. When facing a major decision or a difficult scholarly problem, going somewhere new and engaging deeply with another culture can bring us into contact with unfamiliar ideas and experiences. Those encounters may free our thinking and stimulate creativity, helping us make a better decision or find a way through a difficult problem.