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Rest that really restores you: four ingredients of recovery

Updated Well Day Media Editorial Team
The short answerOccupational psychologists identify four ingredients of recovery after work: psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery (new skills or challenges) and control over your own time. Rest that includes these restores you better than passive scrolling. Nature and movement add to the effect.

Key points

The four ingredients of recovery

Psychologists Sabine Sonnentag and Charlotte Fritz developed the Recovery Experience Questionnaire, identifying four experiences that help people recover from work stress (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007):

  1. Psychological detachment: mentally switching off from work.
  2. Relaxation: low activation and calm.
  3. Mastery: challenging activities that build new skills.
  4. Control: deciding for yourself how to spend your free time.

Why it matters

Without recovery, stress accumulates and can lead to burnout, which is linked to cardiovascular disease, insomnia and depression (Salvagioni et al., 2017).

Nature

People who spent at least 120 minutes a week in nature were more likely to report good health and well-being (White et al., 2019).

Ideas

Frequently asked questions

Why does scrolling not feel restful?

It rarely provides detachment or mastery and often keeps you thinking about work or stressful news.

How do I detach if I work from home?

Create a shutdown ritual: close the laptop, change clothes, take a walk to mark the end of the workday.

Sources

  1. Sonnentag et al. (2007). The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: Development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work.. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 12(3):204-221. doi:10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204
  2. White et al. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific Reports 9(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3
  3. Salvagioni et al. (2017). Physical, psychological and occupational consequences of job burnout: A systematic review of prospective studies. PLOS ONE 12(10):e0185781. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0185781

Prepared according to our evidence methodology and the principles of lifestyle medicine. For education only; it does not replace advice from your doctor.

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