What is the difference between sleep and rest?
I use these words interchangeably. I have heard from many people that sleep is deep, but I do not quite understand. There are times when I come back from work and I want to rest. After six hours, I do not know what I just did. I want to know the difference between this two words.
Answers ( 1 )
This is really more of a linguistic question than a medical one. "Rest" is usually used as a more general term, that refers to any restorative break from activity. You can rest in a chair while doing something else. You can even rest parts of your body, such as your legs, while still doing other activities. So it's a bit context-dependent. Sleep is a bit more literal. If you're still conscious, you're not sleeping, but you might be resting. In that sense, sleep is a subset of rest: a specific type. Pretty much all sleep is rest. But not all rest is sleep.
It's important to note that this dichotomy doesn't really refer to medical terminology at all. These are lay terms, and sometimes people will use them interchangeably. Context is everything. So when someone tells you to "get some rest", they might be suggesting that you sleep. But if a doctor tells you to rest, or to rest a specific body part, it's almost always an instruction not to engage in any strenuous activity, to stay off your feet, and sometimes an instruction to use a specific body part as little as possible.
In the end, sleep is a specific behavior that involves being unconscious. The word rest is more of a result. And is more about what you don't do than what you do.