Short Rest vs Long Rest in D&D 5e: What's the Difference?

26 March 2026

Resting is how characters recover between fights. D&D 5e has two kinds: a short rest and a long rest. Knowing the difference—and knowing when your class cares more about one than the other—will change how you manage resources in play.

Short rest

A short rest is at least 1 hour of downtime. During that time, you can’t do anything strenuous: no fighting, spellcasting, or other adventuring activity. Light activity (eating, talking, tending wounds) is fine.

What you regain on a short rest:

• You can spend Hit Dice to recover hit points. Roll one or more of your Hit Dice (your class determines the die size) and add your Constitution modifier to each roll. The total is how many HP you recover.
• Certain class features recharge on a short rest.

Who cares most about short rests:

• Warlocks regain all spell slots on a short rest (not a long rest like other spellcasters). They have very few slots but recover them frequently.
• Fighters regain one use of Action Surge and (at higher levels) Second Wind.
• Monks regain Ki points.
• Barbarians regain one Rage use.

Long rest

A long rest is at least 8 hours, during which you sleep for at least 6 hours. You can do light activity for up to 2 hours but no more.

If interrupted by combat or similar activity, the long rest doesn’t count — you have to start over.

You can only benefit from one long rest in a 24-hour period, and you must have at least 1 hit point when you start.

What you regain on a long rest:

• All lost hit points.
• All expended spell slots (for Wizards, Clerics, Druids, Bards, Sorcerers, Rangers, Paladins).
• Spent Hit Dice up to half your total (if you have 8 Hit Dice, you regain 4).
• Most class features that recharge daily.

Hit Dice: the mechanic most new players ignore

Every class has a Hit Die — the die you roll when you level up to determine HP gained, and the same die you spend during short rests to heal.

You have a number of Hit Dice equal to your level. You regain half of them on a long rest. Track them — they’re your mid-combat healing resource and matter especially on longer adventuring days.

Practical pacing at the table

The number of short and long rests in a day shapes how powerful characters feel. The game is designed around roughly 2 short rests per long rest — meaning most adventuring days should have two short breaks and one full rest.

When a DM only runs one fight per day and then lets the party long rest, casters feel extremely powerful (full spell slots every fight) and Warlocks feel weak. When there are many fights without rest, martial classes (who don’t rely on spell slots) shine more.

Ask your DM how they handle resting in their campaign. It varies significantly by table and by the module being run.

Exhaustion and resting

Long rests reduce exhaustion by one level (provided you’ve also had food and drink). Short rests don’t reduce exhaustion. If your character is exhausted, prioritise long rests.

The short version