With the development of Chinese society, “rest intolerance” has become a topic of great concern and discussion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dimensions and psychological connotations of rest intolerance and to develop both short and long versions of the rest intolerance scale suitable for Chinese university students. We used three steps to development the scales. In Study 1, we first used interviews and the grounded theory to propose the psychological connotation of rest intolerance and its characteristic dimensions, i.e., negative feelings, obsessive thinking, social comparison, and cognitive bias. On this basis, the rest intolerance scale was compiled, and a four-dimensional scale containing 24 items was obtained through item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and exploratory graph analysis. Study 2 validated the 4 characteristic dimensions of rest intolerance in a new sample through confirmatory factor analysis, content validity test, and criterion-related validity test, the results show that the 24-item rest intolerance scale (RIS-24) has good reliability and validity. Study 3 developed a short version of the 8-item Rest Intolerance Scale (RIS-8) using genetic algorithms. Overall, the present study provides two instruments for the measurement of rest intolerance that will facilitate the progress of future research.