Welcome to an exciting episode of CADL Cast.

Have you ever tried to fix an ongoing lack of energy

by getting more sleep only to wake up and still feel exhausted?

If that's you, then our next guest may have a secret.

Joining us today is Dr. Sandra Dalton-Smith.

She's a physician researcher and author of the book Sacred Rest

Recovery Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity.

Dr. Dalton Smith, thank you so much for joining us today.

It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

So why is it that a good night's sleep

can’t fix chronic exhaustion?

Well, the problem is, for most people, when we think of sleep,

we also combine it with the word rest.

So we think that they're one and the same.

And so for some of us, getting sleep isn't simply enough.

We're needing to have rest in all the different areas.

And sleep is just one of the types of breath that's available.

And my research, what I found is there's actually seven.

And so if you put all your eggs

in the sleep basket and then you omit the other types of rest,

you can get 8 hours but still wake up exhausted.

Sure.

So what do the different types of rest look like?

Answer that seven different types include physical,

mental, spiritual, emotional, social, sensory, and creative types of rest.

Wow. So I just think of sleep and I think of that as rest.

And I never realized to think of all of these other asset

facets to it as well too.

And why is it so important for someone to know this, and how might they be able

to tell whether they're getting the right rest or the reverse?

A lack of another type of rest?

Yeah.

One of the things that we have done

a lot of research with specifically is around this concept of deficits.

And so when someone is focusing primarily on sleep,

they're basically thinking that physical rest, which is a type of

which is what sleep falls under passive physical rest,

that that is going to help them feel restored even in these other areas.

Unfortunately, physical rest, if even in itself, has two different components.

You have the passive component, which includes sleeping and napping,

but then you have the active component which include those things

that help with your circulation

and your muscle flexibility and your lymphatic drainage.

And so even just the physical type of breath has components that sleep itself

can't fully really improve.

Now, when you look at the other types like mental rest,

a mental deficit, someone who's dealing with this,

maybe the person who lays down to go to sleep at night

and they find they can't get their brain to turn off.

They're thinking all the thoughts they are thinking the conversations

they had earlier in the day.

They're thinking of their to do list for the next day.

Well, you can't even get into deeper levels of sleep

when you have a mental rest deficit.

Or you may have that person who spends the majority of their day

around phones or other conversations or in places that are noisy

or just using a lot of their sensory input with bright lights.

And that person may have a difficult time going to sleep

because they have a sensory rest deficit.

Their body has a sensory overload process that's going on

that's keeping them over agitated and irritated.

That then makes it harder for their body to relax and to get into levels of sleep.

So these different types of rest deficit can have a direct effect on our sleep,

as well as how we engage with our and with others

and really how we enjoy our lives, you know, the emotional and social

aspects of it, as well as the spiritual and creative aspects, all play

a role in our ability to fully show up with our work, our families.

And even within those things that are passion projects as things

that we want to have energy for, but oftentimes find that we don't.

So I think it's it's so important to recognize when you have a rest deficit,

because it usually shows up in other areas of your life.

Sure.

And I'm so glad you're talking about this, because when I think of my own life, I,

I read about what the in electronics does before you

you try to to rest at night and get some sleep.

So I took that out of it, but I still couldn't get to sleep.

And it's exactly what you were talking about.

I was reliving events during the day.

I was thinking about things and I just could not turn my brain off in a way.

And it's when I started to read what you've written

that it started to make sense for me, that I there's other things that I should

concentrate on during the day, too, to make that rest more impactful.

Yeah, I think that's such an important comment you just made.

The things you're doing during the day.

I think sometimes when we think about sleep specifically, but then rest

as a bigger picture, we think that, oh, well, you know, that's just stopping.

It's cessation activities, it's taking things away, it's avoiding doing things.

But really, at the very core of rest are the restorative activities we do that

help our body heal that, help us get her to a better, healthier place.

And that's what I'm trying to help people understand that there are restored

of practices that you can incorporate in the middle of a busy day.

You don't have to wait till you take a vacation or sabbatical.

Most of us those are hard to come by.

And so if you're waiting for vacations and sabbatical to help you avoid burnout,

you're probably going to burn out because they're too few and far between.

We need to understand

how to restore our bodies and to do these restorative practices

and get the rest that we need really in the middle of our normal schedule.

Sure.

Now, we we kind of pride ourselves in the library that you would use

the library to kind of meet different needs in your life.

And so what kind of rest might someone be tapping into when they use the library?

Yeah, I love that question because it's one of my favorite types of rest

that is never talked about, and that's the art of rest.

You know, for a lot of people, when we think about creativity,

we think of you know,

we think of artists and musicians and authors and all those people are creative.

But most of us use creative energy throughout our day when we problem solve

whether that problem solving is within your work and your career,

or it's just trying to figure out how to juggle a job and kids

that are in soccer and getting to the games and maneuvering all the schedules.

We use a lot of creative energy and creative rest as the rest

we experience when we allow ourselves to appreciate things that inspire us.

So whether that inspiration is natural beauty,

like the ocean, the mountains, the trees and all of those types of things,

or that's created beauty like art, music, literature.

We need to tap into things that pour back and inspire us.

And that is where the library comes into place, in my opinion,

because there's so many different ways that you can engage your creativity

by tapping into some of the literary works of others.

I love it.

We need to use you for a marketing campaign for our library, and that's fantastic.

You've been a board certified physician

for over 20 years and for the past ten are work life integration researcher.

What inspired you to take this path?

Simple answer. I burned out.

I wish I had been more eloquent.

Answer, but the simple answer is I had.

I was in practice for about eight years

when I had both of my children and they came back to back.

So I had two toddlers under the age of two working full time, and I burnt out.

I couldn't figure out how to, how to.

And I at the time, I was using the word balance.

I don't use that word any more.

I don't think there is work life balance.

I think we have to find work life harmony and ways

to integrate our work life and our home life in ways that are healthy.

And so that's the journey that it took me on.

I was in a career that I loved,

but I knew it was very demanding, had a lot of challenges,

and I knew that others were in similar careers,

maybe not in health care, but they had commanding

jobs that

were really demanding of their time and their energy, and they needed ways

to stay within the challenging times without having to exit altogether.

And so that's where the journey started with me.

So it started with research on how do I stay in a career I love?

That's really challenging and draining, and that's where the seven types

of rest of my book, Sacred Rest Rebirth from.

I mean, I'm glad you found that path.

And actually started that journey and gave all of us the opportunity to learn

more about it and learn about the rest that we all should be taking part of.

And we always like to end with a library type question.

And it can be about rest, it can be about work,

it can be about anything.

So just a recommendation that you would have for our viewers

of something that you've read

that you've watched or you listen to that you would recommend.

I'm an avid reader.

I've I've read probably more books than I care to actually say when that

one that really impressed on me

and I like the concept of it more so than the literary work itself.

Was the book Becoming by Michelle Obama?

Oh, you take the politics out of it.

I mean, whether you agree with the politics of it or not,

that the whole concept of becoming because I feel like that's what all of us

are doing becoming better versions of ourselves is there is a process.

We have to embrace the process and find joy in the journey.

And I find that that's what oftentimes is the reason that we don't rest.

We are always accomplishing, always trying to achieve,

always trying to check the next thing off of our to do list.

And we kind of remove that ability to just enjoy the journey

of becoming better versions of ourselves every day.

I agree, and that's a fantastic recommendation.

So, Doctor Saundra Dalton-Smith, thank you so much for joining us today on

CADL Cast.

Thank you.

It's been a pleasure.

For those of you watching who want to learn more about the seven types of rest,

check out her TEDx talk, the real reason why we are tired and what to do about it.

Or her book, Sacred Rest Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy.

Restore Your Sanity.

I know. I've learned a lot.

Go check her book out and you'll learn more as well, too.

Thank you for joining us. Thank our guest.