Resting

Through playing D&D5E I have found the standard rest rules to hurt the game more than they help. As my games, and the surveys of the current 5E community at large have shown, groups get nowhere near the 6-8 encounters per long rest, usually averaging only 2-3. This breaks the standard balance of the game, where now every fight must possess incredibly strong monsters or lots of medium strength monsters in order to be a challenge, with this in turn damaging the verisimilitude of the game, and removes a large number of the benefits for playing a short rest focused class like a monk or warlock. I have used different resting rules in my games to great effect, slowing down the pace of the game and adding tension to the conflicts, while elevating the short rest focused classes respectively. These are the current version of resting rules that I use:

Resting

Resting means that a character spends time recuperating their body and equipment, however that expresses itself for your character. There are 4 types of rest:

• Quick Rest (1 hour): Characters may consume hit dice to regain hit points and that is all.
• Short Rest (8 hours): Characters may gain the regular benefits of a Short Rest as stated in the PHB, as long as they can maintain the 8 hours uninterrupted by a period of strenuous activity lasting more than one hour.
• Long Rest (3 days): Characters may gain the regular benefits of a Long Rest as stated in the PHB, but with the added requirements that they rest somewhere that affords them shelter, comfort, warmth, and relative safety, such as in a settlement or a homestead.
• Extended Rest (7 days): If a character possesses a Stronghold, they can spend a week at their stronghold, touching base with their subjects and followers, and attending to their affairs. This recharges Stronghold abilities.

Some spells from 5E have their durations extended to match these changed rest times, usually applied only to shelter style spells. For example, Magnificent Mansion has its duration extended to 72 hours, while Leomund's Tiny Hut still only lasts for 8 hours. 

A Previous Version

A previous version of my resting rules used some inspiration from Numenera. A Long Rest was 24 hours, a Short Rest was 8 hours, and after every Long Rest a character could take a single 1 hour Short Rest. This worked very well and was overall well received by players, allowing a 'spurt' of action at the characters choice when they really needed it. The downside to this was that tracking when they had this short rest available, and the confusion between this short rest and an 8 hour one, ended up being rather confusing and time-consuming. These were some of the main reasons that I have changed the rules to be the current version.