{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "capturedAt": "2026-09-14T11:37:40.851Z",
  "sha256": "6a2bf8634d9588a2c30d581eedcb5fa2240a5f4f7621c190133f5ecf5c7ce087",
  "work": {
    "id": "TAP-CON-0003",
    "kind": "concept",
    "key": "recovery",
    "locale": "en",
    "path": "/topics/recovery/",
    "title": "Recovery",
    "description": "Recovery concerns how function and regulation change over time after a disturbance. Sleep, exercise and psychological research use different definitions and measures of recovery.",
    "rights": "© The Allostasis Project. All rights reserved. Reproduction or adaptation requires separate permission, subject to applicable legal exceptions.",
    "version": "0.2",
    "updatedAt": "2026-09-14",
    "editorial": {
      "contentType": "scientific-concept",
      "reviewState": "draft",
      "reviewedAt": null,
      "reviewedVersion": null,
      "updatedAt": "2026-09-14",
      "version": "0.2",
      "author": null,
      "reviewer": null,
      "revisions": [
        {
          "date": "2026-09-14",
          "version": "0.2",
          "description": "Added recovery activities, experiences and states, with outcome-specific sleep and micro-break evidence."
        }
      ]
    },
    "sections": [
      {
        "id": "introduction",
        "title": "At a glance",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Regaining capacity after a disturbance.",
          "Recovery concerns how function and regulation change over time after a disturbance. Sleep, exercise and psychological research use different definitions and measures of recovery.",
          "Rest describes an activity or arrangement. Whether recovery has occurred requires examining the relevant changes in function."
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "change",
        "title": "Observe what changes",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Recovery research asks what happens after demands: to experience, regulation or performance. Work and sport research use different observation windows and outcomes.[1][2]",
          "Employee research makes a further distinction between recovery activities, experiences and states. The Recovery Experience Questionnaire measures detachment, relaxation, mastery and control; these experiences are not direct measurements of restored physiological function.[4][5]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "rest",
        "title": "Rest creates an opportunity",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Pausing an activity describes an arrangement. Judging recovery requires specifying what is observed. Sleep-restriction experiments illustrate why subjective feelings and performance need not tell the same story.[3]",
          "A recovery-sleep experiment found that sleepiness and an inflammatory measure improved while attention performance did not. A micro-break synthesis likewise reported different results for fatigue and overall performance. Improvement should be named by outcome.[6][7]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "reading-research",
        "title": "Three questions to take into a study",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Recovering from what? Which function or experience is being observed? Over what time? These questions help compare studies without assuming that all recovery is one quantity.",
          "Recovery opportunities also depend on the time and organization of work. Reviews follow breaks, evenings, weekends and vacations rather than assuming that all time off has the same function.[8]"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "references": [
      {
        "id": "sonnentag-2015",
        "title": "Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework",
        "authors": "Sabine Sonnentag · Charlotte Fritz",
        "journal": "Journal of Organizational Behavior",
        "year": "2015",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1924",
        "doi": "10.1002/job.1924"
      },
      {
        "id": "kellmann-2018",
        "title": "Recovery and Performance in Sport: Consensus Statement",
        "authors": "Michael Kellmann · Maurizio Bertollo · Laurent Bosquet · Michel Brink · Aaron J. Coutts · Rob Duffield · Daniel Erlacher · Shona L. Halson · Anne Hecksteden · Jahan Heidari · K. Wolfgang Kallus · Romain Meeusen · Iñigo Mujika · Claudio Robazza · Sabrina Skorski · Ranel Venter · Jürgen Beckmann",
        "journal": "International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance",
        "year": "2018",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29345524/",
        "doi": "10.1123/ijspp.2017-0759",
        "pmid": "29345524"
      },
      {
        "id": "van-dongen-2003",
        "title": "The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation",
        "authors": "Hans P. A. Van Dongen · Greg Maislin · Janet M. Mullington · David F. Dinges",
        "journal": "Sleep",
        "year": "2003",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12683469/",
        "doi": "10.1093/sleep/26.2.117",
        "pmid": "12683469"
      },
      {
        "id": "steed-2021",
        "title": "Leaving Work at Work: A Meta-Analysis on Employee Recovery From Work",
        "authors": "Laurens Bujold Steed · Brian W. Swider · Sejin Keem · Joseph T. Liu",
        "journal": "Journal of Management",
        "year": "2021",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206319864153",
        "doi": "10.1177/0149206319864153"
      },
      {
        "id": "sonnentag-2007",
        "title": "The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work",
        "authors": "Sabine Sonnentag · Charlotte Fritz",
        "journal": "Journal of Occupational Health Psychology",
        "year": "2007",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204",
        "doi": "10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204",
        "pmid": "17638488"
      },
      {
        "id": "pejovic-2013",
        "title": "Effects of recovery sleep after one work week of mild sleep restriction on interleukin-6 and cortisol secretion and daytime sleepiness and performance",
        "authors": "Slobodanka Pejovic · Maria Basta · Alexandros N. Vgontzas · Ilia Kritikou · Michele L. Shaffer · Marina Tsaoussoglou · David Stiffler · Zacharias Stefanakis · Edward O. Bixler · George P. Chrousos",
        "journal": "American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism",
        "year": "2013",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpendo.00301.2013",
        "doi": "10.1152/ajpendo.00301.2013",
        "pmid": "23941878"
      },
      {
        "id": "albulescu-2022",
        "title": "\"Give me a break!\" A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance",
        "authors": "Patricia Albulescu · Irina Macsinga · Andrei Rusu · Coralia Sulea · Alexandra Bodnaru · Bogdan Tudor Tulbure",
        "journal": "PLOS ONE",
        "year": "2022",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272460",
        "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0272460",
        "pmid": "36044424"
      },
      {
        "id": "sonnentag-2022",
        "title": "Recovery from Work: Advancing the Field Toward the Future",
        "authors": "Sabine Sonnentag · Bonnie Hayden Cheng · Stacey L. Parker",
        "journal": "Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior",
        "year": "2022",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012420-091355",
        "doi": "10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012420-091355"
      }
    ],
    "type": "CON"
  }
}