The Art of Rest: How to find Respite in the Modern Age
By Claudia Hammond, Cannongate
One of the first things that pops up when you type “The art of …” into Google is a 2008 novel told from a dog’s point of view entitled The Art of Racing in the Rain. Despite its popularity and famous calming effects, hanging out with pets — my favourite respite from this mad world — doesn’t warrant a mention in Claudia Hammond’s The Art of Rest.
In championing the benefits of taking a break, the broadcaster and psychology lecturer’s book evaluates 10 other activities considered more restful, as determined by the world’s largest survey on the subject. The Rest Test saw 18,000 people from 135 countries taking part, most of whom were listeners to Hammond’s BBC radio programmes — All in the Mind on Radio 4 and Health Check on the World Service. Rest was qualified as “any restful activity that we do while we’re awake”, and what a curious list it makes.
In ascending order of popularity, there are chapters on mindfulness, watching television, daydreaming, a nice hot bath, a good walk, doing nothing in particular, listening to music, I want to be alone, spending time in nature and reading (which came first on the list). Ergo, reading this review must be exceptionally restful.
Or is it? If you were surprised that your favourite downtime didn’t make the grade, Hammond appeared upset that gardening didn’t cut it either. Time with “family and friends” only reached number 12, although the “family” bit doubtlessly precluded a higher entry. A tea break? Not so much as a footnote. What is not too surprising is that the majority in the top 10 are solitary pursuits. “It seems when we rest, we very often want to escape from other people,” writes Hammond. Having asked the public what they wished for — always dangerous — there was no escape for Hammond. She had to procure “robust” scientific evidence that these often under-researched activities were actually restful. Even for the author who gave us Emotional Rollercoaster (2005), Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception (2012) and Mind over Money: The Psychology of Money and How to Use It Better (2016), this posed challenges.
How do you make a chapter on Doing Nothing in Particular seem scholarly, or read differently enough from the one on Daydreaming? Which supporting pieces of research do you put in A Good Walk, when they could equally go in Spending Time in Nature?
Hammond valiantly unearths some great nuggets, such as research using data from 3,500 people over the age of 50 who watched more than 3.5 hours of television a day, and who had worse memory-test scores six years later than those who didn’t. Seriously, step away from that daily Netflix fix. Yet the reader is also presented with decades-old research and tiny survey sizes. Mindfulness? Hammond’s scientific mind struggles to find hard evidence, concluding that it may well help stop our constant brain chatter “but don’t expect it to necessarily change your life”.
On garnering evidence in support of rest, she readily admits: “Applying for a research grant to investigate whether TV is restful might appear a bit ‘No shit, Sherlock’.” Indeed there are many NSS moments in the book. On the restorative powers of A Good Walk, she believes that “walking speed is just right for taking things in”. Listening to music? “If you want music to feel restful, choose music you like.”
At the end of the chapter, A Nice Hot Bath, a masterclass in squeezing every last drop of science out of this subject (including why bubble bath keeps the water warmer), she resorts to this pay-off: “Excuse me if I pause here. I don’t want the bath to run over.” Such quirky humour and sunny enthusiasm kept me reading.
But will those who need it most, who can barely stop for a cup of tea, carve out a day to read all 304 pages? In her penultimate sentence Hammond writes: “Assuming you have just finished this book (and not skipped to the last page in search of tips), then you have done one of the most restful things you can do.” Alternatively, those pushed for time should indeed skip to the tips and spend longer in a nice hot bath. Or hanging out with their pets.