Long Rest Rules

A long rest is an extended period of downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which characters sleep and recover nearly all spent resources.

Duration: At least 8 hours, of which at least 6 hours must be sleep (or trance for elves). The remaining time can be light activity: standing watch, reading, talking, eating. No more than 2 hours of light activity.

Prerequisites:

• You must have at least 1 hit point to benefit from a long rest.
• You can benefit from only one long rest per 24-hour period.

What you recover:

• All lost hit points are restored.
• All expended spell slots are restored (for classes that recover on long rests).
• Half your total hit dice are recovered (minimum 1). Example: a level 8 character recovers 4 hit dice.
• One level of exhaustion is removed (if you have food and water).
• Class features that recharge on a long rest are restored (Rage uses, Channel Divinity, Wild Shape uses, etc.).

Interrupting a long rest: If the rest is interrupted by at least 1 hour of strenuous activity — walking, fighting, casting spells — the rest must be started over from the beginning to gain any benefit. Brief combat (less than 1 hour) does not necessarily interrupt the rest.

Watch shifts: A common practice is rotating watch shifts among party members. Each character can keep watch for up to 2 hours of the 8-hour rest without losing the benefit (this counts as light activity).

Elven Trance: Elves meditate for 4 hours instead of sleeping for 6. They still need 8 hours of downtime total for a long rest, but only 4 of those hours need to be trance. This means elves can keep watch for 4 hours.

Hit dice detail: You do NOT recover all hit dice on a long rest — only half. This is an often-forgotten rule. A character who has spent many hit dice over several short rests may take multiple long rests to fully replenish their pool.