For a number of people it means surfing the internet or sitting in front of the TV. For some it may be spending time in the garden or in the gym. But did you know that the dictionary defines "rest" as to cease work or movement in order to relax, sleep or recover strength - sounds straightforward but the concept is anything but moving.
Nevertheless, rest is quickly becoming the nation's new obsession. More people than ever are monitoring our activity, or lack of, with self-tracking apps. These days, companies such as Virgin are starting controversial annual leave policies that allow staff unlimited holiday.
This week the world's biggest survey of our resting habits to date is under way to make sure exactly what rest means to us and what purpose it serves us. "The Rest Test" is the brain child of Hubbub, a group of 50 social scientists, artists, humanities researchers, scientists, broadcasters, public engagement professionals and mental health experts in residence at Wellcome Collection which is a London-based charitable foundation exploring the connections between medicine, life and art.
The survey began last night on BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind, presented by psychologist Claudia Hammond, who is also one of Hubbub's directors. According to her, rest is such a related subject because we feel or are busier than ever, even if we actually have more free time. We want to know the reason why this is the case and whether we need to look at the concept of rest differently. We're basically asking thousands of people all over around the world aged 18 and above, how much rest they usually get, how much they'd like, and what they believe comprises rest.
Since excessive rest has always been synonymous to slothfulness, scientists now believe that it's actually good for our health to have more rest. Professor Charles Fernyhough, a member of Hubbub and a psychologist at Durham University specializing in cognitive development explained that rest provides important moments of contemplation, something anyone who's flooded with thoughts while lying on the beach or standing in the shower will recognize.
A resting brain continues to show highly complicated and organized patterns of activation. When we are not doing anything in particular our minds are constantly busy with a lot of things; like thoughts, plans, memories, feelings, sensations and more.
