Resting When Your Body Is Tired But Your Mind Isn’t.

How to rest when you can’t sleep

There are nights when sleep just doesn’t come.

You’re finally in bed, lights off, room quiet. Your body is tired, but your mind is wide awake. Time zones are blurred, tomorrow’s flight is already on your mind, while yesterday’s duty is still sitting in your system. You keep thinking, “I need to sleep”, and the more you think it, the further away sleep feels.

I’ve spent many nights like that. In hotel rooms that all start to look the same. Lying still, listening to the air conditioning, watching the minutes on the nightstand alarm pass, staring at the blue light on the bottom of the TV, feeling tired but unable to switch off. For a long time, I thought those nights were a failure. No sleep meant no recovery. No recovery meant a harder day ahead.

Here’s something that helped me reframe those nights: Rest and sleep are not the same thing.

Not sleeping doesn’t always mean your body isn’t tired. It means your nervous system is still on duty. Still alert. Still responsible. Still catching up.

That’s where my relationship with rest started to change. Rest is about allowing the body to downshift, even if you remain awake. It gives your system a break from constant alertness. And that break counts.

One of the most helpful tools for this is something called NSDR (Non-Sleep-Deep-Rest), also known as Yoga Nidra.

Despite the name, there’s nothing complicated or spiritual about it. No poses. No effort. You lie down and listen. That’s it.

If you ever saw this face next to you on a plane, breathing in a slow, steady rhythm - that was me doing NSDR.
I’m not weird. I’m just resting… efficiently.

For me, it felt like giving my body permission to stop holding everything together for a while. The guidance moves your attention through the body, the breath, and sensations. You don’t have to concentrate. You don’t have to quiet your mind. Thoughts come and go. Sometimes you fall asleep. Sometimes you stay awake the whole time. Both happen to me.

What matters is what’s happening underneath.

Flying keeps the nervous system in a constant state of readiness. Even off duty, the body doesn’t always know that it’s safe to let go. Practices like NSDR help signal that safety:  heart rate slows, muscles relax, and breathing deepens. The body gets a break from being “on.”

I’ve finished these sessions without having slept a minute and still feel more rested than before. Not refreshed in a magical way. Just steadier. Less wired.

Breathing plays a role in this, too. When sleep isn’t happening, I often bring my attention to the breath. Nothing fancy. A slow inhale through the nose, and a slightly longer exhale through the mouth. That longer exhale tells the body there’s no emergency. No need to stay alert. No threat to prepare for.

Rest can happen in hotel rooms, on layovers, between duties, or even during the day when you’re exhausted but can’t sleep. I often use it when I am deadheading or positioning for a duty.

On nights when sleep comes easily, great. On nights when it doesn’t, rest is still available. And that still counts.

If you’re lying awake, instead of thinking “I must sleep,” try asking a question:

How can I let my body rest right now?

Sometimes, that mindset shift is enough.

Rest well.

Ivana