# Rest
This article is about a command causing your character to rest via pausing. For amulets forcing the wearer to rest via sleeping, see Amulet of restful sleep.
The rest command does nothing for one turn. By default, it is mapped to the . key. There is an option to rest when space is pressed, but this is not considered desirable.
Multi-turn resting with a numeric prefix will stop when hit points or power have returned to their maximum values.

Strategy
Normally, resting does not provide any extra benefits or speed up hit point and power regeneration; however, if you are burdened or worse, resting lets you wait at your unburdened speed. This additionally allows your hit points to regenerate even if your status is stressed or worse. Game time continues to run while you rest, so be wary of holding the key down.
In some situations, searching may be a preferable alternative—it can exercise wisdom if you find a hidden trap or door, but unlike resting the amount of time it takes is proportional to your load. Searching is ideal if you are restoring health in a safe area between battles and can become unburdened; if you are transporting heavy items, such as moving a corpse to an altar, and are waiting for a pet to move, resting is the better option. Other alternatives include pushing boulders to exercise strength, re-reading spellbooks for known spells to exercise wisdom, etc.

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