Rest: How do you use rest during the day?

There were two analogies my OTs (occupational therapists) gave me that helped me think differently about rest and pacing. Especially since I have post exertion malaise (PEM), the idea is to avoid a “crash” if possible because they can take longer to get over and require more drastic rest—that would require doing more restful activities for a longer time until I get back to my baseline.

Her analogies were:

1) Traffic Light: Green equals easier, restorative or resting activities; Yellow equal is activities that require moderate energy; Red equals the activities that take the most energy.

She suggests to try to balance out the different activities and try to sandwich Green Light activities around groups of Yellow Light or Red Light activities so that there’s time to prepare and gather more energy or recover. It’s not perfect, but it helped me classify the different activities and be able to consider if I know I’m going to have a task that’s more draining at work, I can try to build in rest before or after or at least try to follow it up with something that’s not as draining.

And different activities may correspond to different lights depending on the person. We literally sat down and wrote examples for myself. An important thing is that screen time is almost never a purely Green Light activity, which, which is hard for me, because in small doses it can give you a boost, it’s still taxing on the brain. You want things that give you back energy and soothe the nervous system.

2) This is a common one but helps with the “avoiding a crash” idea: We all have an energy budget and you don’t want to get overdrawn. So we all try to spread out our budget throughout the day. Activities that are more draining take money out and activities that are more restorative out money back in.

Or you can reduce the cost of an activity by reducing the load. For example, grocery shopping is hard for me because of the bright lights and noise. Ways to reduce the load are: Wear earbuds, go at an off-peak time, do store pickup for some things and only go in for produce since I prefer to pick it, etc. Or if I’m cooking a meal, if I can sit and do it with music I like on, with help from others or pre-cut vegetables, or spread out the tasks over a few days.

The hardest thing for me wasn’t necessarily what I do, but the pace that I do it if that makes sense?

I actually found it really help to see an OT. It’s not something I thought about but their role is to help people figure out how to get back to their “occupations,” whether that’s work or leisure so their work encompasses coping with fatigue.

Thank you so much for helping me see how it should look. I am going to look into your suggestions. Do you actually sleep, or do you lie down and relax?

That is a wonderful analogy. My problem is I can’t even do the things I used to. Just getting a shower and get ready to do something takes me two hours paced out. I have to sit all the time now or I’m out of breath, in pain and heart rate increases. It will take two days of sleeping (crash) to get over it. I’m going to attach two interesting reads/files that explain my feelings. Are there others on here that feel this way?

mclelland 1958, God Bless You. Resting with COVID, after COVID and having LC is definitely a process....especially if you are Type A and are a doer.

My first bout with COVID in 2022, I had double pneumonia, asthmatic bronchitis and a bad sinus infection. It took me 3 months to regain energy and I am still not back 100%.

What helped me was to do a little something.....rest or stretch out on the couch.....do a little something....repeat. Something as simple as doing a load of laundry, loading the dishwasher, walking to the mailbox was absolutely exhausting. I ordered groceries online. I was too tired to walk in the grocery store.

I took several naps a day. My brain simply was not engaged to do any deep thinking. Balancing the checkbook was a wipeout for me.

It was hard to adapt, but, the more I rested, the better I began to feel.

Rest is healing with Long Covid. I honestly have never been that tired in my entire life from sickness nor from surgery for that long.

Praying for you. You will get through this, but, it will take time. Blessings & Prayers....

Beautifully organized and composed set of guidelines for Pacing oneself!

Thank you. I have a lot more than is mentioned going on and too exhausted to write it again. Prayers are with you as well.

This is exactly how I feel. Also, I read the link you sent. It is exactly what I feel is going in with me and my blood tests are starting to finally show inflammation markers going up. I’m going to run these med options by my docs.

Lori?,

I’m Kelly btw. What blood tests have they done to show inflammation. I’ve had so many types that I’m not sure if that has been done or not. I just reread an article and they were talking about proteins and 5 segments of LC. I don’t think they have done these. I just asked tonight in a message to my LC Dr. to please order that blood work. I am a crossover between all 5 as far as symptoms. I’d like to see what it says.

Kelly- can you send a different link to the video? I can’t get this to work. It sounds like we are very similar and I’ve read the article you shared like x3 times. It’s exactly what’s happening to me. I believe I have blood and neuro inflammation. I’m not sure if I can give you my number to text o. Here but let’s try

I’m actually at the Mayo rn by chance do I’ll bring this up to the doc I’m seeing. Lmk if I can ask him anything from what ur dealing with. I also have the zero energy for anything in life. Ugh. It’s been awful.

Let’s connect and I’ll tell you some of the blood markers I’m now seeing progressing rheumatoid arthritis, just like the article says. I’m so glad you shared that!