30 minutes of reading is as stress relieving as yoga or watching your favourite comedy film.
Warm Down Phase Research
“The brain did not evolve to ‘switch off’, so we need transition routines to help us consciously ‘switch on’ to other priorities.”
~ Rob Archer
Below you will find peer-reviewed research studies and articles supporting the ‘Warm down’ phase of our High Performance Routine.
The risk of dementia and sporadic/late-onset Alzheimer Disease is strongly associated with lifestyle factors. In particular, diet, sleep quality, and circadian cortisol regulation.
Studies demonstrate that detachment from work as well as positive thinking improves subsequent affect, highlighting the causality underlying the association between psychological detachment from work – as a core recovery experience
There is a strong positive relationship between the restorative properties of off-job activities and an employee’s work performance.
This study showed strong relations between sleep quality, occupational stress, fatigue, perseverative cognitions, and work motivation, which support effort-recovery theory.
Results of this study showed that participants who took part in a 1 day CBT workshop reported significantly lower levels of affective rumination and chronic fatigue at follow-up in comparison with individuals who did not attend the workshop.
Spending as little as 30 minutes in nature can improve your short term memory by as much as 20%, reduce mental fatigue and improve focus.
Spending as little as 10 minutes in a green or nature-filled setting reduced the effects of physical and mental stress.
Being part of the always-on culture leads to higher stress levels, greater conflict, more distractions, and increased difficulty focusing.
55% of workers feel they can’t switch off from work (e.g. they feel pressure to check work emails or calls outside working hours).
Individuals who feel that they sufficiently recover during leisure time experience a higher level of work engagement during the subsequent work day.
This high level of work engagement in turn helps them in taking initiative and pursuing learning goals.
Recovering from work stress can restore energy and mental resources and decrease the development of fatigue, sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease.
Worrying about their next workday during the evening, is associated with employees’ well-being even before employees are facing it.