A great revolution is within your reach, which can transform your life: that of sleep. We don’t even realise it any more, but we suffer from a deficiency. For some, it is slight; for others, it is already profound. We all suffer from a lack of sleep. We think that this lack is a normal state, our own: tiredness, bad mood. But is it? In our hyperactive lives, we have had too much tendency to sacrifice sleep. Our addiction to sleeping pills and screens has increasingly threatened and reduced its duration and quality.
With sleep, everything goes right. Obesity, diabetes, depression, burn-out, and diseases are multiplying… We are going through a severe crisis of deprivation, which devastates our physical and moral health, self-fulfilment, work capacities, decisions, social relationships, and even love affairs.
Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a leading behaviour change tech company with the mission of changing how we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success.
Insomnia costs the US over $65 billion a year. Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington explores sleep from every angle. She reveals that we have entered the golden age of sleep science. Without delay, we can take advantage of all the recently accumulated knowledge, whether it concerns our cognitive skills, our physical performance after long nights, or the maintenance of our brains and bodies while we sleep. Sleep should no longer be an adjustment variable in our lives. We can all get back to restful sleep. We will be better off for it. If we do the right thing, we can get back to enjoying sleep and getting up feeling good, ready for each new day.
“Let there be no light!” To begin the process that leads to sleep, you have to start by turning down the light. “Darkness stops melatonin production, which signals it is time to sleep.”
- What are you reading at the moment?
More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World, by Mark Nepo - What’s keeping you awake at night?
Not much! I learnt that there is no trade-off between a well-rounded life and high performance. Our lives are improved when we set time aside for renewal. - What’s the one thing you can’t live without?
Sleep - What is the hardest thing you overcame?
In 2007, I made phone calls and checked my emails when I passed out at my desk. I woke up in a pool of blood with my daughter standing above me. After I collapsed from exhaustion, my attitude toward sleep changed drastically. I now take it much more seriously, and prioritising my sleep has improved every aspect of my life. - How did you get out of your own way?
After realising the importance of sleep, I now take care of myself. I make sure I practice gratitude, and I purposely find moments of wonder and joy….something I practice every day.
Stress is one of the most standard factors in insomnia or disturbed sleep. If you have trouble sleeping,” notes Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, “your body may be telling you something about how you live your life. The message may be worth paying attention to.” So it’s essential to calm your mind. Yoga and meditation are good tools for this. Arianne Huffington has come up with what she calls “the mind bin”: before you go to bed, write down all the things you need to do. “This can clear your mind and reassure you that you don’t need to think about these tasks overnight. Your list will be waiting for you in the morning.” The moment we step out of our room should be a symbolic moment that marks that we are leaving our day behind.
“Today, our society is in a state of collective delusion that sleep is simply wasted time,” says Arianne Huffington. On the contrary, sleep is a time of intense neurological activity, a very rich time that allows us to replenish our energy, strengthen our memory, clean our brain and, a bit like a computer, allow our brain to regenerate itself.