If you can’t sleep so you lay still for an extended period of time with your eyes closed, does that do anything to restore energy? Or does the fact you’re still awake make it a useless gesture?
In: Biology
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Resting would, I think, have a similar effect on the physical recuperation side of things, but wouldn’t help with the mental aspects of recovery that sleeping provides.
It doesn’t really do anything to restore energy, more that it slows the rate at which you use up your current energy reserve, so if the goal is to ultimately recharge your batteries it is pretty much a “useless gesture”.
There’s some discussion around the idea that a deep meditative state can give the feeling of energy being restored, but it’s not really been proven scientifically, it’s likely more a perceived effect not unlike a placebo.
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I would imagine it’s better than being awake and alert, but worse than being fully sleep
how big that gap is and which one it is closer to is a mystery to science
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When you are laying at night with your eyes closed and relaxed, but you feel awake, you may actually be in the first stage of sleep. People who go for sleep studies can report that they didn’t sleep all night but when their brain wave activity is analyzed, they were going in and out of light sleep.
As someone who has severe trouble falling asleep I figured out that by lying all night in my bed and doing nothing I will rest and get some energy back. More physical energy than mental, but it roughly translates into half or a quarter of the sleep time, say I couldn’t sleep and was 6 hours in my bed awake, that feels (at least for me) like 2-3 hours of sleep. IMPORTANT: doing anything else on the side, like listening to music or a podcast, a show in the background etc. will diminish the resting effect almost completely.
I find it helpful. I stay in the dark, and don’t do screen time. Music in the background is good for me though. The hardest part is not to be anxious about why am I not sleeping and how I will feel tomorrow. As long as I stay calm and relaxed, I usually feel well rested afterwards.
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