Abilities and Resting

[Todd Que]

So, I know about spells and resting and 24 hours and all that...But I'm asking about abilities.
A lot of classes have abilities they can do a certain number of times per day.  Like Paladins and Smite; Inquisitors and Judgements; Bards and Performance.  So, how do those reset? 
Is it just "every 24 hours," like it resets at midnight?
Or do you have to rest for 8 hours to get them?

I know for Paladins, it specifically says in the Core Rulebook, you have to rest to regain the Smite Evil ability.  But I can't find anything for Bards, or Inquisitors.

[Abraham Z]

My understanding is that all of those things are considered to reset after you've rested for the night. In other words, you only have that many uses per adventuring day and you can't game the system by waiting until just after midnight to go to the villain's lair.

I have seen situations where, at higher levels, people prepare hour/level buffs and cast them the night *before* the adventure (for example, at level 12, cast extended Mage Armor just before midnight on Monday and then go to sleep. When you wake up on Tuesday you have Mage Armor running for the entire day, but you used one of "yesterday's" spell slots to cast it. Kind of game-y, but it does seem to be accepted practice in high-level play.