Resting

Resting lets time pass quickly, and you heal twice as fast while you rest. Every other way to get your health back is on Healing.

Press b to rest. The message line asks:

Rest: (h)our, until (d)awn, until (n)ightfall? (Esc to cancel)

Any other command cancels the prompt. Resting until dawn or dusk always means the next one, even if it is that time right now.

How resting works

Resting is a single action that waits turn after turn, each wait a normal action (6 seconds). It works the same on the overworld. Creatures keep acting and the world keeps changing. The last wait is cut short, so the rest ends exactly at its goal. A rest’s waits do not search, as a single wait does. A rest never lasts more than a day.

While you rest, creatures away from you take their turns in larger steps, so a night’s rest on a level full of them goes quickly. A creature counts as away unless it is hostile to you and you (or the spot it is heading for) are within its sight. Away from you:

• A creature going about its routine walks up to 20 steps of its round at once, then waits them out, so it keeps its own pace. “Its routine” means it sees no enemy, hears nothing worth a look, and has no status effects. It never takes such a stride onto a cell where you saw creatures when you last looked, nor where you could hear its step, nor to where it could see an enemy. Only its last step is heard. One standing still, or with someone in its way, waits 20 turns at once.
• A creature busy with something else (fighting another creature, looking into a noise, going back to its post) acts as usual, but 20 times slower.

Creatures near you, in view, or in earshot take every turn as usual, and outside a rest every creature does.

A rest stops early when:

• A creature hostile to you comes into view within 5 steps of you (“A kobold comes into view; you stop resting after 2 hours.”), or one you could already see farther off comes that close (“The kobold comes close; you stop resting after 10 minutes.”). Steps count as you move, diagonals too: 5 steps is any cell up to 5 columns and 5 rows away. A hostile farther off may be in view and you rest on. Creatures that are not hostile to you (neutral beasts, the people who talk, your allies) never stop a rest by being seen, however close.
• Something attacks you: a blow, a shot, a throw, or a spell, even one that misses or that you resist, and even from something you cannot see. So does a shot or a spell landing or flying within 5 steps of you, a spell cast by or at someone within 5 steps, and a fight or a death you see within 5 steps. A fight you watch farther off is written to the message line, and you rest on.
• A message is written to the message line, such as a new sound (“You hear footsteps to the north-east.”) or an attack you notice (“The kobold hits you.”). A sound you have already been hearing does not stop you; see Hearing. Nor does a status effect wearing off (“The bleeding stops.”, “The poison wears off.”) or a disease leaving you (“Your fever breaks.”); see Status effects and Diseases.
• Under the open sky, rain starts or grows heavier (“It starts to rain.”, “It starts to pour.”, “The rain grows heavy.”). Other news of the weather, such as the rain stopping, and someone muttering to themselves, is written to the message line but lets you rest on.
• You get hungrier: hungry, weak, fainting, or starving (“You are getting hungry.”). Fainting from hunger stops it too, and so does losing a hit point to starving (“You are wasting away from hunger.”). Resting burns food like any other time (see Hunger). A full stomach settling (“You no longer feel satiated.”) lets you rest on.
• On the overworld, someone finds your camp (see Camping and foraging).

So resting next to a creature that walks back and forth behind a door is interrupted each time it comes back into earshot. A hostile already within 5 steps and in view when you start does not stop the rest just by being there. It stops the rest only by leaving your sight (or going farther than 5 steps) and coming back, or by attacking you.

Digging, eating, searching, and every other long task go on turn after turn the same way, and stop early for the same reasons.

When the rest ends, the game tells you how long you rested (“You rest for 1 hour.”, “You rest until dawn.”). Rest to wait out the night, to wait for the light to change, or to let your wounds heal. Hit points come back with time, faster the tougher you are, and twice as fast while you rest (see Healing). Bleeding and poison still cost hit points while you rest, and bleeding stops your healing until it stops.

See also: Time and the calendar and Weather.