Between political turmoil…concerns over health care, crime, discrimination, the economy…and fear for our nation’s future, half of US adults report frequently experiencing stress—the highest since Gallup first began tracking stress in 1994.
This stress does more than trigger anxiety—it affects the body at a cellular level, exerting a toxic toll on the brain, heart, kidneys and other organs, says health psychologist and stress expert Alexandra D. Crosswell, PhD. Chronic stress over years and years creates a cumulative health burden known as allostatic load. The cellular damage involved with a high allostatic load is closely linked with accelerated aging, chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and dementia, and early mortality, according to researchers at Columbia University and other institutions.
Ask most people what they do to relieve this stress, and they likely will say, “watch TV” or “have a cocktail.” These strategies might feel good in the moment, but they don’t do much to counteract the cellular damage responsible for premature aging and chronic illness.
Sleep is incredibly effective at helping repair the day-to-day cellular injury accrued from stress, but most people don’t get the amount of high-quality deep sleep needed to do so. Besides, the effect of chronic stress is so powerful that for many people, its impact on the nervous system continues to simmer even when they’re asleep, interfering with the vital work needed to keep cells thriving.
Enter the concept of deep rest.
What Deep Rest Does
Deep rest can help counteract the harmful cellular wear-and-tear of chronic stress. It is a psychologically and physiologically restorative state that helps reduce allostatic load. It is more than just lounging on the couch. Deep rest is purposeful relaxation that gives your busy mind a near-complete break from worry and even thinking. If you’ve ever found yourself feeling blissfully calm during a massage…drifting in and out of consciousness while meditating or praying…breathing slowly and rhythmically while reading a book…or pleasantly lost in thought while on a walk in nature, you’ve experienced a sense of deep rest.
Deep rest shifts the body away from the fight-or-flight mode—the high-alert state that evolution intended to be used in emergencies to keep us safe and alive but that now dominates most peoples’ days—and toward one of parasympathetic dominance, where a sense of safety and calm prevail. Benefits of that sympathetic to parasympathetic shift include…
Cellular housekeeping. It is hypothesized that during deep rest, essential cellular housekeeping functions responsible for health and longevity reign. Example: Autophagy—the process of sweeping away and recycling old or damaged cellular material—helps rebuild new cells and minimizes inflammation levels throughout the body, according to research from Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute. For years, doctors thought autophagy occurred only during sleep, but we now know that several other practices can spur this rejuvenation, including exercising…intermittent fasting…and achieving a deeply relaxed state, similar to what often occurs during prayer, meditation and other contemplative practices.
Mitochondrial health. You may not realize it, but chronic low-grade stress causes your heart to beat faster…increases blood flow to muscles, causing them to tense…and turbocharges the production of energizing stress hormones and neurotransmitters such as cortisol and epinephrine. This is a nervous system on high alert, and it requires lots of cellular energy—specifically, mitochondrial energy.
Mitochondria are tiny power plants embedded in every cell in the body. Pulling oxygen from the air you breathe, mitochondria transform the food you eat into energy for the body. They help maintain a healthy balance of hormones and neurotransmitters. Research from Spain’s University of Grenada suggests that mitochondria also communicate with the immune and circadian systems, gut microbiome and more.
But spending the majority of your days in a moderately stressed-out state, as a shockingly high number of people now do, sends a message to the mitochondria that says, Stop what you’re doing to keep the body humming! There’s an emergency unfolding, and your help is needed to escape it…ASAP! By stealing resources from mitochondria, persistent stress makes it easier for chronic health conditions such as cancer and heart disease to gain traction.
Telomere protection. Another downstream effect of chronic stress is its caustic impact on telomeres, protective caps at the end of chromosomes that shield DNA from age- and inflammation-related damage. Deteriorating telomeres interfere with healthy cell division, increasing risk for cancer and other degenerative diseases, according to researchers from multiple institutions. Shorter telomeres also are associated with early mortality.
How Do I Access Deep Rest?
An ideal setting for cellular repair and optimization is for the body to be in parasympathetic dominance and you need to feel safe and unthreatened. That includes…
- At a physical level—you feel free from the risk of physical harm.
- At a psychological level—your mind is quieted from anxiety, worry and rumination.
- At a social level—you don’t feel lonely, judged or criticized.
When you feel safe at all three levels, your heart rate slows…your breathing becomes slow and rhythmic…your mind quiets…worries dissolve…and your body organically shifts energetic resources toward restorative activities within cells. This gives cells the opportunity for the much-needed recovery that’s critical for keeping your body humming.
What About Non-Sleep Deep Rest?
The phrase non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) has gained notoriety lately, thanks to Stanford neuroscientist and popular podcaster Andrew Huberman, PhD, who coined the term to describe a collection of activities that can help achieve the benefits of deep sleep—rest and rejuvenation, improved memory, emotional regulation—without actually sleeping. Some NSDR activities include guided meditation, breathwork and body scanning.
Deeply restful activities actually have been practiced for centuries in the form of contemplative practices. Example: Yoga nidra, an ancient Indian relaxation tradition featuring guided mental imagery while lying in Savasana (“corpse pose” in yoga).
Other ways to reach a state of deep rest…
Prayer, which has been around for at least 5,000 years, also ushers people into a state of deep rest and alleviates allostatic load. In a 2023 University of Miami study published in Journal of Religion and Health, patients with chronic illnesses who prayed daily (or more frequently) were between 1.5 and 1.7 times more likely to survive over six years than those who prayed less often. Frequent prayer is thought to offset some of the negative impact of high allostatic load, like that caused by the stress of living with a chronic illness, perhaps by promoting a sense of peace or optimism. Prayer also may shift the nervous system toward parasympathetic dominance, resulting in lower blood pressure…lower cortisol levels…and improved telomere activity. And because prayer often is done while surrounded by other like-minded folks, it provides the sense of psychosocial safety and belonging needed to access a state of deep rest. (People who pray also tend to have healthier habits overall, including less tobacco and substance use, which is likely responsible for some of its protective effects.)
Contemplative practices such as meditation and yoga can benefit physical health in similar ways. In a 2024 article authored by myself and researchers at University of California, we found that, like prayer, meditation and yoga signal a sense of safety to body and mind, freeing up energy and resources that lower blood pressure and inflammation and protect telomeres. “Safety signals” are conscious and non-conscious cues of safety that a person receives from his/her external or internal environment, allowing the body to shift away from a stress response since it feels safe.
Other activities with the potential to activate a state of NSDR include mindfully spending time in nature (sometimes called “forest bathing”)…Tai chi and qigong…gentle yoga…guided visualizations…body scanning…sound baths…relaxing hobbies such as knitting, flower-arranging, crafting and painting…and massage. There’s no shortage of activities to choose from, but for it to lead to deep rest, the activity must be enjoyable to you.
Boosting the Effects of Deep Rest
Incorporating sound, scent or tactile components may help intensify feelings of safety and calm. Examples: Praying or meditating near candlelight…playing soothing music or using a scented essential oil in a massage…using prayer beads or a weighted blanket…breathing slowly and deeply while walking in nature, focusing on the scents of the trees, grass and flowers, or focusing on the feeling of the breeze on your face
We don’t yet know how much time in deep rest is needed to improve allostatic load and activate the body’s natural healing capacities, but 10 to 20 minutes a day is a smart goal. If you come out of it feeling less anxious and more at ease, you’re reaping some of the benefits. You’ll likely enjoy more restful sleep at night, too.
