09/09/2026
This article was written for a local magazine called Wholehearted Meditations Magazine, and will appear in the Fall issue. I thought I would share it with you here as well! (And share it while I’m actively following my own advice by taking a vacation!).
Rest is an Important Part of Balance
We live in a very busy society. It’s not uncommon for people to feel like they aren’t accomplishing enough if every minute of their day isn’t scheduled. This busyness creates a lot of stress and a habit of feeling the need to always be busy.
For some people, they literally need to be ‘pinned down’ (my favourite work pun) to sit still and take a rest!
As a community acupuncturist, I know a few things about resting. ‘Acu-naps’ are a regular occurrence in my group treatment room. An ‘acu-nap’ is the rest you have while receiving an acupuncture treatment. Some people will doze, while others are completely asleep. Most people trying acupuncture for the first time are surprised when I mention they might fall asleep. Even working as an acupuncturist for more than 10 years, I can still appreciate the strangeness of taking a nap with a bunch of needles sticking into you.
One of the theories for how acupuncture works is that it helps the body switch from the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). Rest and sleep are important in and of themselves, but there are also other functions in your body that perform optimally in a resting state.
Digestion is a resting (not necessarily sleeping) process, as suggested in the parasympathetic nervous system moniker ‘rest and digest’. Part of that is the blood flow needed for the digestive organs when they are digesting food - 20% of your total blood volume. Knowing how your body prioritizes blood flow at different times is a great starting point to understanding your body as a system of limited resources. Your body can’t do everything at once, so it will determine what is prioritized based on the stimuli it receives.
Sleep is also important to brain health, for processing new information into long term memory; muscle repair; and immune system functioning and healing.
My favourite theory for why people feel tired and fall asleep during an acupuncture treatment is that the needles are stimulating healing responses, which primarily happen when you are sleeping. Your body shuts down other processes so it can redirect energy to the healing it is being prompted to do.
It may be hard to decide to rest, but it is a vital component to a balanced life. If society has taught you that rest is lazy, just think of all the things your body is doing while you rest!
