10 Reasons Why Your HSP Friend Needs Rest

Recently I revealed to myself that planning for relaxation time is not just OK for HSP’s, but it is also needed. But, explaining it to close people is definitely not easy and awkward. During quarantine, some of my family members still don’t understand why I must go to sleep exactly at 10 pm and not a minute later.

For Highly Sensitive People, it goes without explaining why rest is vital to their physical and mental health. Common consequences of overstimulation for HSP’s is poor sleep, anxiety, burnout, or bad mood. These can even lead to depression, like if you’ve been in bad mood for weeks and now you suddenly don’t know how to come back from it (talking from personal experience).

However, for all other Not-So-Sensitive People here, I’ll bring out a number of reasons why HSPs present in your life may need rest:

1. They have been on their feet all day and are not being too enthusiastic towards evening.
2. They have been doing a lot of chores around the house, such as cleaning and cooking.
3. They had to make a difficult decision that day.
4. They had to organise a party or a meeting.
5. They attended a party or an event involving a lot of people, loud music and/or bright lights.
6. They have been exposed to negative or upset people that day.
7. They have been exposed to overly energetic people that day.
8. They had less than the optimal amount of sleep during night, or it wasn’t particularly good.
9. They have been recently under timely pressure such as deadlines.
10. They’ve been crying or tearing up more than usual.

The list can go on and on…

It is important to stress out that rest for many HSPs is a holy grail, an elixir, a healing potion for their nervous system. Therefore, they would be wise to set up certain boundaries around their rest time.

Talking about this with your highly sensitive friend would save both of you time and might strengthen your relationship.

• Featured image source: https://liteonline.com/if-you-get-less-than-six-hours-of-sleep-per-night-youre-average/
• Picture source: https://www.tameday.com/do-naps-at-work-increase-productivity/

Advertisement