BWHCA

Importance of Physical (Passive) Rest

Many Americans are caught in the grind of work, family responsibilities, and ongoing stress. However, it’s important to prioritize adequate rest and quality sleep in your everyday life. Rest and sleep are two different things, but both are equally important to your mental, emotional, and physical health. Plus, prioritizing rest can actually improve your quality of sleep.

Rest is any behavior aimed at increasing physical or mental well-being. It can be active, such as going for a walk outside, or passive, such as taking 10 minutes to sit down and breathe deeply. We will look at active rest in a future Wellnote. Today, we are going to look at passive rest, which includes sleeping and napping.

Unlike rest, sleep is something your body cannot function without. Sleep is a mind-body state in which individuals experience sensory detachment from our surroundings. It is an essential function of the body and impacts every system from our cognitive function to immune health. Quality sleep can help us reset, recover, and recharge. It’s absolutely vital to brain function, memory, concentration, immune health and metabolism. It’s recommended that adults get seven to eight hours of sleep each night, but quality is just as important as quantity. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the most restorative of the five sleep cycles. At least 1/4 of your sleep should be spent in the REM cycle.

How can you ensure that you get enough quality sleep each night? Here are a few tips:

Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening.
Stick to a consistent sleep schedule, even on the weekends.
Set your thermostat between 60 and 70 degrees at night.
At least one hour before bed, swap screen time for a relaxing activity such as reading, bedtime yoga, or a relaxing bath.

Spine Support

Sitting all day can take a toll on your body, and having bad posture can make things worse. To avoid chronic neck and back pain, it's important to maintain good posture while you're sitting at your desk or other workspace. If just reading that line just made you sit up a little straighter, here are three things you can try to help support your spine:

1. Stretch regularly – Keeping your chest and shoulders open can help you feel less muscle tension and realign your posture. Try this chair yoga session from the Engage Anywhere team to hit a reset button for your body and loosen up your tight spots.

2. Walk when you are on break – Getting up and moving your body breaks up bouts of sitting and relieves tightness from staying in the same position too long. Even if you can’t walk outside, try walking the perimeter of your work location or doing some movement in place if space is limited.

3. Set up your workplace – Revisit CommonHealth’s ergonomics program to check your workspace arrangement. The positioning of your chair, monitor, keyboard, mouse, or other tools can have dramatic effects on how your body interacts with them. Check your spacing to minimize the impacts on your body.

Good posture means less pain, so make spine support part of every workday to feel your best!

Have a great week!