Keywords: Health; Relaxing; Sleeping

All living beings in their life time enjoys both rest and exercise. A living creature can’t survive if it remains rest all the time in the same way as one can’t remain healthy if continue exercise/work all the time. These are arbitrary words and may mean different level/degree to each living beings. Plants do not move its entire body but movement of individual plant organs are possible and are modified by the sensitivity of plant to external stimuli such as gravity, light, water, chemical, solid surface, air, magnetic field etc. Although a few animals can survive attached to one place (such as sessile) the vast majority have locomotive system to find food, avoiding capture by predators, dispersal, finding new habitat, bringing together for reproductive activity etc.

Movement can be at cell level, organ level or at the level of the entire organism. Human needs both rest and exercise in their healthy lives or in diseased condition. A physiciansuggests one thing more in one state and suggest another in the next condition of health/disease. Neither continuous rest nor a continuous exercise are beneficial to the health of an individual or healing of disease. Children are very active and mobility is the hallmark of infancy and childhood. Probably long sleep hours or rest maypotentiate adaptation of their growing body, brain,and behavior. There is nothing absolute rest in human since basic human body and mental activities persist throughout life. It is also interesting to note that sleep decreases with age, growth and development continuous to an adult stage. As age advances human tend to have less movement and more rest. The balance between rest and exercise is the key to remain in optimal health.

There is a vast range of bodily activities that can be measured in life of a living being. For example, a man hasheart rate between 40 in a professional athlete to a 220 bpm [fetal HR 110-150, newborn 100-150, adult 70, elderly 60]. There are species specific heart rates in various mammals such as blue whale has an average of 8-10 beats per minute, human an average of 72 bpm, mouse 450-750bpm, canary 1020 bpm, and Etruscan shrew 1511 bpm[1].Any speedy actions of the human body increase several physiological parameters such as pulse, respiration, metabolism, excretion etc. for a certain period however it stimulates exertion, fatigue or ill-health if persist for a longer time. In the same way too much rest or lack of movement decrease blood circulation, sensation, excretion etc. leading to generalized laziness, localized stillness or generalized imbalance in energy and metabolic balance.

One of the very dynamic organ, heart has a nuclear role in the regulation, control and maintenance of both the conditions, rest and exercise. Neonates with very high or low heart contractility or rhythmicity need a balance of rest and activity depending upon the situations. A young energetic athlete must balance the conditions of rest and exercise to optimize his/her competitive output. An octogenarian need to control the state of rest and exercise depending upon his aging and state of health to sustain healthy life. Heart, due to its non-resting nature regulates its own rate according to the needs of the brain and the body.

In non-adaptable conditions, both rest and exercise may potentiate the disease conditions, disability, ill-heath and in extreme circumstances death. In most acute illnesses rest plays a key medicine for the body that helps to alleviate pain, symptoms and sufferings. However, exercise helps to decrease or alleviate a wide range of chronic bodily and mental condition/problems. A number of systematic exercises such as rehabilitation exercises, daily stretching exercises, and yoga etc. are boon to the health and wellbeing of increasingly urbanizing dwellings of the world. A judicious balance between rest and exercise is mandatory to maintain the health of humans of all ages.