Resting with Purpose: Restoring Your Energy on the Lupus Journey
Living with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) often means navigating a body that operates on a constantly fluctuating energy budget. You can get a full nine hours of sleep, wake up, and still feel as though you haven't slept at all.
That is because sleep and rest are not the same thing.
While sleep is essential, it is only one form of recovery. For people living with a complex chronic condition like lupus, relying solely on sleep to recover is like trying to fix a leaky house by only painting the walls. Physician and author Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith identified seven distinct types of rest. Understanding how each applies specifically to lupus can transform how you manage your disease, possibly prevent flares, and help safeguard your well-being.
1. Physical Rest (Passive & Active)
Lupus causes systemic inflammation, joint pain, and profound cellular fatigue. For a person with lupus, physical rest must be balanced between quiet recovery and gentle maintenance.
Passive Rest: Sleep and naps. When a flare strikes, your body needs actual, uninterrupted time lying down to divert energy toward healing internal inflammation.
Active Rest: Chronic joint stiffness and muscle aches often worsen with complete immobility. Active physical rest includes low-impact practices like gentle stretching, restorative yoga, and slowly moving in a heated pool or warm baths. These activities improve circulation and ease stiff joints without straining your immune system.
2. Mental Rest
Lupus brain fog (lupus fog) can cause memory slips, difficulty concentrating, and cognitive fatigue. Trying to push through mental exhaustion taxes your nervous system, which in turn can trigger more physical and mental stress.
Why it matters: Offloading mental clutter conserves brain power for critical daily tasks.
How to practice it: Keep a daily notebook for "brain dumps"—writing down your to-do lists, symptoms, and appointments so your mind doesn't have to constantly hold onto them. Build short, 5-minute mental breaks into your workday to close your eyes and stop processing information.
3. Sensory Rest
Fluorescent lighting, computer screens, loud environments, and constant phone notifications keep the nervous system in a state of high alert. For those with lupus who experience photosensitivity or sensory sensitivity during flares, sensory input is a real physical stressor.
Why it matters: UV light from fluorescent bulbs or sunlight is a well-known trigger for lupus cutaneous rashes and systemic flares. Beyond UV, constant noise heightens stress hormones.
How to practice it: Create a quiet, low-lit space at home. Use blackout curtains, wear UV-blocking glasses, turn off push notifications, and spend time sitting in silence without a phone or TV running.
4. Creative Rest
Living with a chronic illness requires non-stop, high-stakes problem-solving. You are constantly calculating energy budgets, scheduling appointments, managing medications, and adjusting plans based on how you feel each morning. This causes severe creative burnout.
Why it matters: Creative rest awakens awe and wonder, taking your brain off duty from constant medical logistics.
How to practice it: Surround yourself with beauty without feeling the need to be productive. Watch a sunset, listen to your favorite music, read a book for pure entertainment, or sit in a park (in the shade!) without worrying about your to-do list.
5. Emotional Rest
Managing a chronic condition often involves "emotional masking"—putting on a brave face so friends, family, or coworkers don't worry, or constantly reassuring others that you are "okay."
Why it matters: Hiding pain and frustration takes immense physical and emotional energy, adding unnecessary stress to a body already fighting itself.
How to practice it: Find safe spaces to be entirely authentic. Whether with a therapist, a trusted support group, or through private journaling, allow yourself to say, "I am struggling today," without guilt or the urge to fix it for anyone else.
6. Social Rest
Relationships can either recharge your battery or drain it completely. When energy is a limited resource, protecting your social circle is a form of medical self-care.
Why it matters: People-pleasing leads directly to overexertion, which is one of the most common physical triggers for a lupus flare.
How to practice it: Differentiate between draining interactions and nourishing interactions. Practice saying "no" to non-essential social commitments when your body needs quiet time. Surround yourself with friends who understand when you need to cancel plans last minute without judgment.
7. Spiritual Rest
A lupus diagnosis—and the unpredictable nature of living with it—can leave you feeling disconnected, frustrated with your body, or searching for purpose amidst chronic illness.
Why it matters: Spiritual rest anchors you, helping you feel connected to something larger than your diagnosis and restoring a sense of personal meaning.
How to practice it: Engage in practices that cultivate deep connection and grounding, such as meditation, prayer, volunteering within your energy limits, or participating in a community that shares your core values.
Balancing Your Rest Account with Lupus
Type of Resting | Sign You Are Deficient | Lupus-Specific Rest Action |
Physical | Deep muscle fatigue, joint stiffness | Laying down during flare peaks; gentle stretching when stiff |
Mental | Severe brain fog, trouble forming sentences | Offloading tasks to paper; taking quiet non-screen breaks |
Sensory | Headaches, eye strain, irritability | Dimming lights; using UV filters; sitting in silence |
Creative | Feeling hopeless, burnt out on problem-solving | Enjoying nature or art without pressure to achieve |
Emotional | Exhaustion from pretending to feel "fine" | Expressing genuine feelings in a journal or support group |
Social | Dread or exhaustion around social plans | Setting firm boundaries; saying "no" without guilt |
Spiritual | Feeling resentful toward your body or isolated | Meditation, prayer, or connecting with chronic illness peers |
Identifying your rest deficits is the first step in being your personal and professional best self. -Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith
In music, the rests are just as important as the notes. Resting with lupus isn't a sign of laziness or weakness—it is an essential medical strategy for keeping disease activity at bay. The next time you wake up tired after a full night's sleep, check in with yourself across these seven areas. Identifying which tank is empty will help you give your body exactly what it
needs to recover.
Watch Dr. Dalton-Smith's TEDx Talk on the 7 Types of Rest Here:
Compiled By:
Kelli (Casas) Roseta
**All resources provided by this blog are for informational purposes only, not to replace the advice of a medical professional. Kelli encourages you to always contact your medical provider with any specific questions or concerns regarding your illness. All intellectual property and content on this site and in this blog is owned by morethanlupus.com. This includes materials protected by copyright, trademark, or patent laws. Copyright, More Than Lupus 2026.
Sources & Further Reading:
Dalton-Smith, S. (2019). The 7 types of rest that every person needs. TED Ideas.
Lupus Foundation of America. Sleep Better When You Have Lupus: Resource Center. Lupus.org.
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Lupus Signs, Symptoms, and Co-occuring Conditions. Johns Hopkins Lupus Center.
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