Understanding the Timbre of Rest That’s Best

Did you know that adults need 7-9 hours of sleep a night on average?

According to the Sleep Foundation, that amount of rest yields optimal daily performance and coherence for the average adult in the most mundane of activities. Infants, toddlers, school-age children and teens need 10-15 hours a night on average!

As we know, every literal body is different – and every season of life requires something different from our performance and, therefore, our sleep and rest.

Sleep is necessary for our bodies to function. Rest, too, is necessary for our bodies to function. But it does not change the fact that rest is also particularly significant, required and paramount.

Yes, rest can include sleep, but sleep really isn’t a requirement to rest.

Rest, which is stillness and relief of a duty in the body and mind, can look

different for each person. It is often quoted that if you work with your mind, then you should rest with your hands and vice versa. Thus, rest can look different for each person.

It can also be a value that is expressed differently in our families.

Keep in mind that familial values are not taught or caught in silos, they come together in the most epic or simple of moments. A game night, for example, can bolster connectedness for some families but it also models a way to rest.

Working in the yard for one family is an arduous task, where reprogramming a computer is a glee-filled adventure for another mother-daughter duo. In all instances, families can model other values in an activity, the value of each other and the idea that rest is necessary.

You can find this to be true in many contexts: at home, work or school. As an educator, I find that rest or pause in conversation is always golden. The space a student has between engaging with others and/or a concept and themselves is a building block to confidence and retention.

Students looking within themselves to capture or associate material or a moment with a peer is vital to moving forward to the next moment. Whether socially or as an academic concept, even in its smallest form, rest is critical.

Author and researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang of the Association for Psychological Science states the following in her article regarding brain activity and rest:

“Rather, [rest and] constructive internal reflection is potentially critical for learning from one’s past experiences and appreciating their value for future choices and for understanding and managing ourselves in the social world.”

To repeat, rest is paramount.

If I don’t carry this value as an educator, there is no room for dynamic growth. Likewise, if I stifle this value as a leader and mother in my home, my family and I could also miss out on dynamic growth. We get to model its importance and decide when and how we rest as leaders in our homes, in conversation, thought or through labor.

Now, you may not celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas or holidays in general, but can you rest? Can you be still and truly rest? Why or why not?

Scientifically, when we rest, we are kind to ourselves. Emotionally, we are gentle and fortifying to our being. It helps us be more physically present than we could ever hope to be. We are mentally tilling the ground for health and much needed rebuilding after the past two years of global transition in many forms and fields.

This November, as my family celebrates Thanksgiving, we are going to rest. I’m determined to lead us there, so hold me to it. And I must lead the way in practicing what I preach in the timbre that best suits my family and home.

How will you rest?

Diamone Ukegbu is a local Little Haiti artist, creative, mom and wife.