Mental Rest

A case for making off-days, off.

High-performance environments have come a long way in implementing physical rest to enhance performance. However, performing at the highest levels is more than just a physical endeavor, it’s mental. What are we losing out on by not prioritizing mental rest? And how can we help our athletes get the mental rest they need?

In this week’s 3 Points, I’ll discuss mental rest, why it matters, and how to help your team rest and recover mentally.

1. What is mental rest?

According to Dr. David Eccles, a sport psychology professor and researcher on expert performance, a person’s level of mental rest, or how mentally rested, they are, is a subjectively experienced psychological state. In other words, the way a person knows that they are well or poorly rested mentally is based on how they feel.

Mental rest consists of two main components: sleep and wakeful rest. Sleep is critical, I’ve written more in-depth about that here. It is important to model and emphasize sleep amongst the members of your high-performance teams. Today, I will focus more on the wakeful resting experiences. But first, it’s important to understand why resting matters.

2. What are the benefits of mental rest?

Eccles et al., have conducted multiple studies on the benefits of mental rest and found that mental rest facilitates mental recovery. According to Eccles (2020):

• Inadequate mental recovery has immediate effects including impaired decision-making quality during a performance.

• Inadequate mental recovery also has lasting effects, which include the onset of burnout. Burnout can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment and enjoyment of one’s sport.

• Mental rest also is key to acquiring new technical and tactical skills. Mental rest between practice sessions allows for memories of newly practiced movements to be better formed or consolidated in the brain.

3. How can we help our athletes get mental rest?

Wakeful resting experiences (in addition to sleep) can help your athletes experience mental recovery. Wakeful resting requires time and space. My suggestion? Make off-days, off. Often, off-days are used for travel or meetings or to meet individually to watch film; all productive things and without physical exertion. However, they may not lead to the mental rest that off days are aiming to achieve.

According to Eccles, wakeful resting experiences include:

• Getting a break from always thinking about one’s sport

• Getting a break from any kind of effortful thinking

• Getting a break from feeling life is controlled by sport

• Getting a break from the monotony of the daily routine

• Being able to catch up on important work tasks

• Being able to have a personal life outside of my sport

Can you begin to consider the mental strain in addition to physical strain during a season?