Other than under the influence of drugs or psychosis or some other imbalance, we can think of the mind at any given moment as being immersed in one of these three states: subconscious sleep, waking thought stream, or some form of mindfulness. Your waking thought stream can be considered “rest-less-ness” and suffers when its not balanced by some combination of the other two states. An extreme deficit of restful states leads to exhaustion. We are all familiar with the consequences of exhaustion. When you are exhausted you become impatient and less tolerant. You are apt to be rude and harder to relate to.
“Exhaustion” comes from the Latin exhaurire meaning “drain out”. With chronic exhaustion you lose more than you may realize. Your creativity gets “drained out”; your health gets “drained out”; and even your life expectancy gets “drained out”. Studies have shown that with each successive day with a deficiency of rest your IQ declines – so even your IQ gets “drained out”.
Right now you probably need some z’s or better yet some deep mindfulness meditation.
