New Scientist - USA (2019-11-16)

16 November 2019 | New Scientist | 31

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Don’t miss

Visit

Eco-Visionaries, an

exhibition at London’s

Royal Academy, asks

how architecture, art

and design are reacting

to a planet “in a state

of emergency”. From

23 November to

23 February 2020.

Read

Dr Space Junk vs The

Universe (MIT Press) by

space archaeologist Alice

Gorman sees her probe

the artefacts of human

endeavours beyond

Earth. That means

everything from dead

satellites to Elon Musk’s

orbiting red Tesla car.

Listen

Futuremakers is a

fly-on-the-wall podcast

from the University of

Oxford that draws on the

views of its academics

and the likes of Bank of

England governor Mark

Carney. AI featured in the

first run. This latest series

explores climate change.

UP

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reality TV experiment Big Brother.
In the next zone, the blurring
of work and leisure is central to
Tega Brain and Surya Mattu’s Unfit
Bits, a humorous take on how you
might trick a wearable device into
recording more exercise than you
have taken (to reap employer or
insurer benefits). Fitbits swing on
metronomes and smartphones
rock in desk cradles. This reminds
me of a friend, who, when she was
low on her day’s step-count, would
strap her smartwatch to her
toddler and let him run about.
Enjoyment of the final section,
called “Reset”, is enhanced by a
warm sunset glow. Here, we are
encouraged to think about our
24/7 lifestyle and its effects on
others, from family to other
species. One highlight is Daisy
Ginsberg’s Machine Auguries, a
10-minute dawn chorus of natural
and AI-generated birdsong.
The work is her response to the
effects of 24/7 life, as urbanisation
and light pollution change the way
birds communicate. Ginsberg says
some birds start the dawn chorus
23 minutes earlier near airports.
Her exhibit is a dark room that
lightens to dawn with the rising
song. It is still a restful reminder
of our relationship with nature.
But why do we find nature
restful, and what does rest even
mean in a frenzied world? Such
questions take us to Claudia
Hammond’s new book The Art
of Rest, a counterbalance to 24/7.
Rather than exploring lifestyles,
it is a treatise on the need to take
rest seriously, what that means
and how to get it.
For Hammond, rest really
matters: “Like sleep, rest is not a
luxury. If we are to live well and
flourish, rest is essential.” She
draws on the world’s largest
survey on this issue, of 18,000
people in 134 countries who took
part in a project called The Rest

Test, funded by the Wellcome

Trust and involving researchers

from Durham University, UK.

Two-thirds of respondents felt

they weren’t getting enough rest.

Perceptions of rest were related to

well-being. The well-being scores

of the “rested” were twice those of

people lacking in rest. Exploring

the importance of rest neatly

divides the book into chapters

of the top 10 things people said

helped them achieve restfulness.

Some are no surprise – being

in nature, having a hot bath – but

others seem counter-intuitive.

How do people find strenuous

activities like boxing or endurance

running restful? Neuroscientists

have shown that neural patterns

of elite distance runners at rest

resemble those of experienced

meditators. Bodily exertion,

explains Hammond, might allow

“the brain to rest, allowing the

brain’s chatter to quieten down”.

There is a chapter devoted to

TV. As a slightly ashamed, avid

viewer, I found it heartening

to find someone looking for

positives. After all, there is a

wealth of research examining

the negative effects of watching

television, but almost none on its

restful benefits. With 3.5 billion

hours of TV watched globally per

day, surely there must be some?

Not only is The Art of Rest an

enjoyable read, touching on

scientific evidence in a light,

accessible manner, it delivers on

its promise too. It gives pause for

thought on how rest – a need

many of us feel guilty about and

consequently neglect – may be as

important as sleep for well-being.

Reading, according to Rest Test

participants, is one of the best ways

to rest. So if you want to change

your 24/7 lifestyle, opening The Art

of Rest may well be a good start. ❚

Shaoni Bhattacharya is a

consultant for New Scientist

“ Why do we find

nature restful,

and what does rest

even mean in a

frenzied world?”