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Some recent talk about the five minute workday for spellcasters was on my mind, and by coincidence I happened to be going through my old 1st edition AD&D DMG. Just skimming through, I noticed a rule that I had no memory of from back in the day (not surprising, as the old DMG was dense with weird rules and not particularly well organized).
The gist was that less rest was required to prepare low level spells than to prepare high level spells. If you were only going to prepare 1st or 2nd level spells, then you only needed 4 hours of rest rather than a full 8. 3rd and 4th level spells required 6 hours rest, 5th and 6th required 8 hours, 7th and 8th required 10 hours, and 9th level spells required 12 solid hours of rest before preparation.
Prep time was variable, too: 15 minutes per spell level. So a 1st or 2nd level Wizard or Cleric who was tapped out could be back up and running again in as little as 4 hours and 15 minutes. Likewise, preparing a 9th level spell was a big undertaking and probably not something you would do on a whim in the morning before you had your coffee.
I just thought I would toss this out there as an alternative for those DMs who find the concept interesting or potentially useful. Could help reduce party downtime.