The Neurobiology of Rest Resistance

"Beneath Olivia's polished exterior lies a complex relationship with stillness. Childhood sexual abuse created a profound disconnection from her body-a survival mechanism that allowed her to endure the unendurable. Her nervous system learned to oscillate between hyperarousal (intense creative work sessions lasting 12+ hours) and hypoarousal (periods of emotional numbness and creative block). "When I try to rest, it's like I'm falling through space," she explains."

"The shift from sympathetic activation to the beginning stages of ventral vagal calm can feel dangerous to a nervous system that associates downregulation with vulnerability. It's as if there's a missing neural pathway-a bridge that should allow for a smooth transition between activity and rest but was never fully constructed due to early developmental disruptions."

Early relational trauma and societal pressures can produce a persistent resistance to rest by altering autonomic regulation. Nervous systems may oscillate between prolonged hyperarousal and episodes of hypoarousal or dissociation, leaving intellectual awareness of sleep metrics disconnected from embodied feeling of rest. Relaxation can trigger panic because downregulation was previously experienced as vulnerability, and developmental disruptions can leave missing neural pathways for smooth transitions between activity and rest. Rebuilding capacity for stillness requires gradual, titrated approaches that restore safety cues, cultivate bodily attunement, and practice incremental transitions toward ventral vagal calm.

Read at Psychology Today