This text is a part of SELF’s second annual Relaxation Week, an editorial bundle devoted to doing much less. If the previous few years have taught us something, it’s that taking good care of your self, bodily and emotionally, is inconceivable with out real downtime. With that in thoughts, we’ll be publishing articles up till the brand new 12 months that can assist you make a behavior of taking breaks, chilling out, and slowing down. (And we’re taking our personal recommendation: The SELF workers will probably be OOO throughout this time!) We hope to encourage you to take it straightforward and get some relaxation, no matter that appears like for you.

All the things feels exhausting these days. Possibly it at all times has; these days is, after all, a subset of at all times. There’s simply a lot to do day by day, and boundless alternative, because of the fixed stream of knowledge at our fingertips, to think about the methods through which we’re falling quick. Day-after-day influencers come up on the crack of…every time, to make “Get Prepared With Me” movies for adults who want that extra leisure geared at individuals our age had the tone of a Sesame Road phase about easy methods to tie your footwear. We’re continuously bombarded with photos of people who find themselves not solely lovely and profitable, however who additionally appear to at all times be at their greatest. How are we common slobs (no offense, reader) supposed to maintain up?

Nicely, there are infinite gadgets and merchandise that promise to assist us really feel much less drained (or a minimum of look much less drained). 1,000,000 mattress firms, all of which allegedly supply a superior night time’s sleep, appear to have sprouted up in a single day simply to fill promoting house on podcasts. Dietary supplements are an infinity-dollar trade, and their purveyors swear they can provide you every thing from lasting vitality to leisure on the finish of the day—the way in which I think about the sober members of Metallica occasion once they’re on the highway as of late. Loads of meals promise jolts of vitality too. Espresso, certain. Everyone knows about espresso; that’s 101 stuff. Now mushrooms have come into trend as an additive to your morning cup o’ one thing. They’re purportedly loaded with adaptogens, which I assumed was the technical title of the compounds that flip common turtles into the Teenage Mutant Ninja type. If you happen to actually wish to add some zip to your morning, you possibly can shell out for a ginger shot (sort of like throwing again the alternative of tequila) or an acai bowl, which sounds unique, however is usually simply there to reply the query, “What if oatmeal have been fabricated from gummy worms?”

The issue is, it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re going to get sleepy. Each single day. There isn’t a quantity of relaxation that exempts you from that organic truth. Even individuals who handle to do every thing “proper” require a number of hours of unconsciousness in any given 24-hour span. Regardless of how a lot we’d prefer to, we merely can’t make it to bedtime totally awake and alert, shut down our working system fully at 11 p.m., and roll that further vitality into the subsequent day once we reboot—and there’s no quantity of ginseng or pilates or Brooklinen that may get round that truth.