Sleeping alone isn't enough: 7 ways to rest to overcome burnout and recharge your energy

From psychology, nutrition and sleep medicine, many universities, including Harvard, now propose a very clear approach: there is not a single kind of tiredness nor a single kind of rest.

The current academic approach invites you to do something very specific:
identify which areas you are exhausted in and apply practical resources to restore your physical, mental and emotional energy in everyday life.

Let's break it down together, with science, real examples and tools you can apply starting today.

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What this academic approach proposes about fatigue and rest

Several university research groups, such as those linked to Harvard, agree on something key:

• Sleep is necessary, but not sufficient.


• There are different areas of fatigue that affect your performance, mood and health.


• If you identify the type of tiredness, you can choose the appropriate type of rest, instead of just trying to sleep more.

Internist and author Saundra Dalton Smith popularized this idea by talking about seven types of rest that complement each other. Universities that research well‑being agree:
when you only care for sleep and neglect the other rests, chronic burnout appears.

In my practice I see it every week: people who sleep seven or eight hours and say something like:
“I wake up already tired, as if I hadn't slept”.
When we review it, their problem almost never is limited to sleep; what fails is comprehensive rest.


I also suggest you read: 13 incredible ways to concentrate better

Why sleeping well doesn't always leave you with energy

Sleep performs wonderful functions: it repairs tissues, consolidates memory, regulates appetite and stress hormones. However:

• If your mind doesn't rest, you wake up with mental noise.


• If you saturate yourself with screens, your sensory system stays on alert.


• If you live with unresolved emotional conflicts, your emotional energy is depleted.


• If you neglect your social or spiritual life, emptiness and apathy appear.

I'll tell you a very typical consultation anecdote.
A patient, a lawyer, proudly defended her “perfect” sleep routine:
“Patricia, I sleep eight hours religiously, but every morning I feel like a truck ran over me”.

What we discovered:

• She went to bed answering work emails.


• She had notifications on all night.


• She didn't allow herself to say no to social gatherings she didn't enjoy.


• She had no creative leisure activities, only obligations.

Conclusion: sleep was somewhat cared for, but mental, sensory, creative and social rest were in the floor.
As soon as we began working on those other types of rest, her sense of “eternal tiredness” decreased, even without adding more hours of sleep.

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The seven types of rest that science proposes and how to apply them

Here is the complete map. I suggest that as you read you think:
“Which of these am I most indebted to myself for?”

One. Physical rest

It's not only about sleeping, but about alternating activity and pause intelligently.

Includes:

• Quality nighttime sleep.


• Short naps, when your routine allows.


• Brief breaks to stand up and stretch if you sit many hours.


• Light physical activity like gentle yoga or easy walks.

Something that usually surprises in workshops:
gentle movement is also part of physical rest.
That short walk after lunch can renew you more than collapsing in a chair staring at your phone.

Two. Mental rest

Refers to giving your mind a break when:

• Your thoughts are racing.


• You have trouble concentrating.


• You read the same sentence three times and remember nothing.

Very simple tools that work:

• Make task lists before bed to “get” pending things out of your head.


• Practice mindful breathing for two or three minutes several times a day.


• Short blocks without multitasking, focused on a single thing.

In corporate groups many people acknowledge they are not tired of their bodies, but of the constant internal noise. When we teach mini mental rest routines, their productivity improves more than by extending sleep hours.

Three. Spiritual rest

Not limited to religion. It's related to feeling that your life has meaning and connection to something larger than you.

It can come from:

• Prayer, if you are a believer.


• Walks in nature that remind you you are part of something broader.


• Volunteering or community help.


• Reflecting on your values and aligning your decisions with them.

When people tell me:
“I have everything in order, but I feel empty”,
we almost always talk about a deficit in spiritual rest, not a mattress problem.

Four. Sensory rest

We live in constant-stimulus mode: screens, notifications, noise, bright lights. The nervous system becomes saturated.

Signs you lack sensory rest:

• You get irritated by noises you used to tolerate.


• You end the day with a headache without a clear medical cause.


• You feel an urgent need to “put everything on silence”.

Very simple resources:

• Lower the brightness and volume of your devices.


• Set screen-free times, for example during meals.


• Create a quiet corner at home, with soft light and little noise.


• Practice guided meditation with eyes closed.

Dalton Smith herself insists on this: reducing stimuli is a very powerful form of rest, not just a trend.

Five. Emotional rest

Happens when you allow yourself to feel and express, instead of accumulating.

Emotional fatigue appears when:

• You constantly swallow what bothers you.


• You play the “strong person” for everyone but don't share your own burdens.


• You feel guilty for saying no, even when you're overwhelmed.

Useful strategies:

• Write a personal journal and pour out what you feel without filter.


• Talk with trusted people, without minimizing your emotions.


• Learn to set boundaries and say no to demands you can't or don't want to take on.

Here the science is very clear: not expressing emotions increases the risk of anxiety, depression and even physical problems. And from experience I'll tell you something direct:
no patient broke from crying, but many did from holding on too long.

Six. Creative rest

Ideal for:

• Professionals who solve problems all day.


• Students who need fresh ideas.


• People who feel they “can't come up with anything new”.

Simple ways to revive this rest:

• Expose yourself to art: music, painting, film, theater.


• Visit new places, even a different park or neighborhood.


• Listen to inspiring talks and debate ideas with others.


• Play with creative materials, even if you don't “produce” anything useful.

A brief anecdote.
An entrepreneur arrived convinced he had “physical exhaustion”. On review, he slept reasonably and ate fairly well, but for months had not enjoyed anything, no reading, no music, no hobbies.
We introduced small doses of creative rest, like going to concerts and recovering an old passion for photography.
Months later his line was:
“I feel the spark is back, and the tiredness no longer crushes me”.

Seven. Social rest

It's not about “having many friends”, but about balancing relationships that nourish you and those that drain you.

Notice:

• People with whom you feel authentic and light.


• People after whom you need to recover.

Practical keys:

• Prioritize meetings with those who bring you calm, support and joy.


• Reduce time with those who constantly demand or criticize you.


• Allow yourself to decline invitations you only accept out of obligation.

When I talk about this in talks, someone always acknowledges:
“I think I don't need to rest from work, but from some people”.
And they're almost always right.

I also suggest you read: How to rest our minds from social media

How to identify your areas of physical, mental and emotional fatigue

I suggest a quick self-assessment I use a lot with patients and in workshops.
Think from one to five on each item, where one is “very poor” and five is “very good”.

• Physical
  You wake up with some energy, your body doesn't hurt constantly and you can move with some agility.



• Mental
  You concentrate without great effort, you don't feel your mind hyperaccelerated all day.



• Emotional
  You can identify what you feel, you share it at least with someone or on paper and you don't spend the day repressing.



• Sensorial
  You tolerate the noise and light of your environment without feeling on the verge of collapse.



• Creative
  You have ideas, curiosity and desire to learn new things.



• Social
  You have at least one or two relationships where you can be yourself, without masks.



• Spiritual
  You feel your life has some kind of meaning or purpose, even if you're still discovering it.

Where you score low is your priority area of fatigue.
And pay attention to a detail we see in research and in practice:
when you improve one or two types of rest, the others also benefit in a chain.

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Daily micro‑rest plan to restore your energy

You don't need to change your whole life in a day. The academic approach emphasizes small, sustainable adjustments.

You can try something like this for a week:

• In the morning
  Upon waking, before looking at your phone, take three deep breaths.
  Stretch arms and legs for a minute.
  With this you already give a nod to your physical and mental rest.



• Midday
  A three to five minute screen‑free pause.
  Look out the window, drink water, walk a bit.
  This calms your sensory system and reduces mental noise.



• After work or study
  Do a short activity that is creative or pleasurable: music, drawing, reading something inspiring.
  It doesn't need to last an hour; fifteen continuous minutes make a difference.



• Conscious connection
  Each day seek at least one nourishing social interaction: a short call, a sincere message, a calm coffee.
  This feeds your social and emotional rest.



• Before sleep
  Write three things: what worries you tomorrow, something you are grateful for and something you did well today.
  Then put your phone away from the bed and dim the lights.
  This ritual combines mental, emotional and spiritual rest.

When people apply this basic scheme, many tell me after a few weeks:
“I sleep about the same, but I feel much less exhausted”.
It's not magic; it's that now you rest across more dimensions.

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When to seek professional help if the tiredness doesn't go away

Although this approach helps a lot, it's also important to be responsible. It's advisable to seek professional help when:

• You've had several weeks of fatigue that doesn't improve, even after making changes.


• You notice worrying physical symptoms such as significant weight loss, shortness of breath, palpitations or intense pain.


• You feel demotivated, sad or irritable almost every day.


• Your performance at work or study drops markedly.

These professionals can help:

• Health professionals to rule out medical causes.


• Psychologists to work on mental, emotional and social rest.


• Nutritionists to review whether your diet supports or sabotages your energy.

My clinical experience and the evidence point in the same direction:
when you treat tiredness only with more sleep or more coffee, you postpone the problem.
When you face your areas of fatigue and apply practical resources, your energy stops being a mystery and becomes something you can consciously care for.

And you, if you had to choose only one,
which type of rest will you focus on today?