You sleep, at least enough to function. You check the boxes—bedtime routine, decent hours, maybe even a white noise machine. Yet still, you wake up with a heaviness you can’t quite name. By midday, your thoughts are muddy, your patience thin, and even the smallest tasks start to feel strangely overwhelming.
Most of us were only ever taught to “get more sleep,” as if sleep alone could put all the pieces back together. But through my work in functional medicine, I see every day: real rest is more layered. True restoration isn’t always about clocking more hours; it’s about tending to the kinds of exhaustion that don’t resolve by simply closing your eyes.
When you move through life without enough of these other types of rest, the effects ripple beneath the surface. Your adrenals—small but mighty glands—fire out stress hormones like cortisol, always bracing your body for the next demand. Over time, this “grind” mode can blunt your resilience, flatten your mood, and leave you feeling depleted even if, technically, you slept.
These are 3 often-missing types of rest that I encourage my patients to prioritize:
1️⃣ Mental Rest
This is the rest your mind craves after long stretches of high alert—solving problems, multi-tasking, always “on.” If you’ve felt like you have twenty tabs open in your brain and can’t figure out which one is blaring, you’re not alone. Chronic mental overload ramps up cortisol, adding pressure to already-taxed adrenal glands.
Mental rest doesn’t require hours; a few mindful minutes can work wonders. That might look like staring out the window and letting your gaze (and thoughts) soften, jotting down the persistent thoughts looping in your mind, or setting a timer to do nothing but breathe quietly. These acts, simple as they may sound, help to reset your cognitive stress response and gently coax your nervous system out of overdrive.
2️⃣ Sensory Rest
Screens, pings, lights, background noise—our environment bombards the senses, and the body doesn’t just “tune out” these inputs over time. On a biological level, persistent sensory stimulation keeps the adrenals engaged and the cortisol faucet dripping, straining your ability to truly unwind.
Sensory rest means reducing input, even briefly. You might dim the lights, silence notifications, go for a walk outdoors, or spend a few minutes with your eyes closed. These moments allow your senses to recalibrate and give your nervous system a necessary lull. Even a short break from digital noise tells your adrenals it’s safe to step down, which is key for restoring your body’s natural rhythm.
3️⃣ Emotional Rest
This can be the most elusive—and the most impactful—form of rest. It’s what happens when you get to drop the mask and simply be. Emotional rest means not having to filter your feelings or defend your needs; it’s finding spaces where you’re safe to show up as you are.
When emotional suppression is chronic, it triggers a subtle, ongoing stress response—again nudging cortisol higher and subtly wearing down your inner reserves. Emotional rest can be as simple as allowing feelings to come (and go) without judgment, confiding in someone supportive, or practicing compassionate self-talk. Sometimes it’s saying “no” without guilt, or letting yourself cry after a long day. What matters most: giving yourself permission to stop performing and, in doing so, finally exhale.
In our culture, we’re taught to grind, to measure our worth by productivity, to count hours of sleep as if they tell the whole story. But body and mind are holistic: your adrenals and stress hormones don’t distinguish between a to-do list and a worry or an endless scroll on your phone. The restoration you need is deeper—rest that touches every part of you.
You don’t have to earn a pause. Your well-being needs it. Next time you find yourself exhausted despite “enough” sleep, ask: What kind of rest is my body, mind, and heart craving?
Sometimes, it’s the deeper kinds of rest that unlock the most profound healing.
If you’re feeling stuck in exhaustion — reactive, overwhelmed, or constantly wiped out — your adrenals might be signaling that it’s time for support.
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