A whole new definition of Rest

Hello, all. I’ll get right to the point in the hopes of maximum usefulness. Rest means doing NOTHING, with NO STIMULI. Not reading something fun, not watching tv, not anything. No light, no heat, no noise. And: When you get a headache, go rest. Get yourself a blindfold. Earplugs aren’t as effective as you might think, but don’t discount them. Now I can get into the back story. Eight weeks ago, I fell and hit my head on a concrete pad, and now I have this minimal TBI (per my regular MD). As these things go, I was /darn/ lucky — I happened to connect with an on-vacation EMT almost immediately afterward; I’d split my scalp so there was a startlingly obvious indication of injury; I never lost consciousness and remember the whole event. But in those first days, nobody told me what “rest” meant, or how much I should get, or anything beyond “take lots of breaks when you’re doing your job.” I thought a break was going to the kitchen for a snack. Nobody quite explained the whole sensory-deprivation thing until I’d been through the agony of learning it myself. I have yet to see it defined on any webpage I’ve looked at. It’s NOT common knowledge, I’m pretty sure. And I have to admit I have willfully done things that have hampered my healing. This new definition of rest, I really could’ve used some help with, but I’ve done plenty that I know better, whether by common sense or professional advice — which is probably why I’m eight weeks out and still where I’m at in terms of healing. (Symptoms — fatigue’s been the main one for me — are markedly better but nowhere near done; I refuse to worry until my MD does.) But with any luck, this little post can “save some trouble for the next girl” and nip overactivity in the bud.