The Sleep Revolution

Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time
by Arianna Huffington | Harmony © 2016 · 400 pages

Arianna Huffington (CEO of Thrive and co-founder + editor in chief of The Huffington Post) went from being a sleep-deprived executive to a sleep evangelist after passing out and banging her head following years of a grueling work! In this book, she brilliantly walks us through the crisis we’re facing, the history of sleep, the science of sleep and, most importantly, what we can do to Optimize our sleep. I highly recommend it. Big Ideas we explore include the fact that sleep is the #1 most underrated health habit, how to master sleeping well, the #1 tip (and #2-4), how much sleep the wealthiest human on the planet gets (hint: target: 8!), how athletes train their sleep (guess what time Tom Brady goes to sleep!), and why you should set a WORK-DOWN alarm so you don't need a WAKE-UP alarm.

Sleep is, after all, at the center of our overall vitality. When we sleep well, we feel better, and vice versa. We may be what we eat, but also, to be sure, we are how we sleep.
Arianna Huffington

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Big Ideas

“As I went around the country talking about Thrive, I found that the subject that came up the most—by far—was sleep: how difficult it is to get enough, how there are simply not enough hours in the day, how tough it is to wind down, how hard it is to fall asleep and stay asleep, even when we set aside enough time. …

It’s clear that if we are going to truly thrive, we must begin with sleep. It’s the gateway through which a life of well-being must travel. …

I wrote The Sleep Revolution to examine this ancient, essential, and mysterious phenomenon from all angles, and to explore the ways we can use sleep to help regain control over our out-of-kilter lives. By the time you get to the chapter on tools and techniques, I hope you’ll be convinced of the need to go from knowing what we must do to actually doing it, from awareness to action.”

~ Arianna Huffington from The Sleep Revolution

Arianna Huffington (CEO of Thrive and cofounder + editor in chief of The Huffington Post) went from being a sleep-deprived executive to a sleep evangelist after passing out and banging her head following years of grueling work!

In this book, she brilliantly walks us through the crisis we’re facing, the history of sleep, the science of sleep and, most importantly, what we can do to Optimize our sleep. I highly recommend it. (Get a copy here.)

Of course, we talk about sleep all the time. It’s my #1 self-care habit. I’m a different person with/without my 7.5+ hours of sleep. (And you don’t want to be around the less-rested version of me. lol. Trust me. Just ask Alexandra!)

Check out Sleep 101 for some of my favorite ideas. Some of my other favorite sleep titles include: Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson, The Power of Rest, and Take a Nap! Change Your Life., and Eat Move Sleep.

For now, I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas we can apply to our lives TONIGHT, so we wake up feeling energized tomorrow, so let’s jump straight in!

Our most underrated health habit

“According to a recent Gallup poll, 40 percent of all American adults are sleep-deprived, clocking significantly less than the recommended minimum seven hours of sleep per night. Getting enough sleep, says Dr. Judith Owens, the director for the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, is ‘just as important as good nutrition, physical activity, and wearing your seat belt.’ But most people hugely underestimate their need for sleep. That’s why sleep, says Michael Roizen, the chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic, ‘is our most underrated health habit.’ A National Sleep Foundation report backs this up: two-thirds of us are not getting enough sleep on weeknights. The crisis is global.”

Sleep. Science unequivocally says: It does a body good. But, you already know that, don’t you? :)

Pop quiz: How many hours of sleep are you getting per night?

Know this: “The universal, most asked question to end all questions about sleep is inevitably: How much sleep should we be getting? In 2015, experts from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society examined thousands of peer-reviewed articles and determined that for individuals between the ages of eighteen and sixty . . . (drumroll, please!) a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night is essential for optimal health.”

So… The minimum (!) recommendation is seven hours per night. (Target: 7 to 9.)

You hitting that?

If not, why not? :)

I get it. We’re all busy. Etc. Etc. Etc.

But…

Let’s be honest.

If you’re not getting the sleep you need, the REAL reason is almost certainly super simple. You just haven’t made it a priority and eliminated the habits you know are getting in the way.

Stephen Covey comes to mind. He tells us that the reason we don’t do the stuff we know we should do isn’t because we’re lazy. It’s because we haven’t really made it a priority.

Here’s how he puts it: “If you were to fault yourself in one of three areas, which would it be: (1) the inability to prioritize; (2) the inability or desire to organize around those priorities; or (3) the lack of discipline to execute around them? … Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe that is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds. They haven’t really internalized Habit 2 [Begin with the end in mind].”

So… Get this: SLEEP IS CRAZY IMPORTANT!!

We’ve gotta prioritize it. Let’s quit wasting our time blowing up our brains with nonsense so late at night. And give ourselves the chance to feel great. Starting tonight!

P.S. In Power Sleep, James Maas (a leading sleep researcher) tells us: “According to Dr. William Dement, chairman of the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, ‘The national sleep debt is larger and more important than the national financial debt.’ Are you a contributor to this deficit? If so, you’re far from being the person you can be.”

Fact: Twenty-four hours without sleep is the equivalent of a blood alcohol level of 0.1 percent—at which point you are more than legally drunk.
Arianna Huffington

Mastering sleep

“So, where do we go from here? We’ve seen sleep’s profound importance in our lives. We’ve seen the overwhelming scientific evidence on the benefits of sleep. From highways to runways, from the halls of power to our hospitals and schools, we now know the dangers of not getting enough sleep. But how do we move from awareness to action? How do we incorporate this knowledge into our lives? It’s not easy, even when we know what we should do. ‘I think that public awareness is there,’ says Dr. Willis H. Tsai of the University of Calgary. ‘The problem is in the execution. It’s like eating at a fast food restaurant. You know it isn’t really good for you, but you end up doing it anyway.’ When it comes to our similarly unhealthy sleep habits, how can we stop ‘doing it anyway’? What are the first steps we can take to make changes in our lives?

In a study on what made babies better at walking, scientists discovered that more than height, brain development, or any other variable, what made the difference was simply how much time babies spent trying to walk. As Daniel Coyle wrote in The Talent Code, ‘Baby steps are the royal road to skill,’ and this is true for sleep as it is for any other habit.”

Those are the first words of the first chapter of Part Two in which we learn how to master sleep. (That comes AFTER Arianna walks us through the “Wake-Up Call” that is Part One of the book.)

First, let’s talk about HOW we get good at anything. Hint: By DOING it.

As Aristotle says (see our Notes on The Nicomachean Ethics): “Moral virtues, like crafts, are acquired by practice and habituation.” <- Same thing with sleep habits! :)

Now, what should we be doing?

Well, Arianna gives us a TON of tips and tricks.

We’ll talk about the #1 tip in the next Idea. But, first, you ALREADY KNOW what you could be doing. So let’s start there.

I know I could be doing this to Optimize my sleep: ___________________________

(Awesome. Today/tonight a good time to get that habit rocking?)

P.S. That last line from Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code? It’s from a passage we pulled out in our Note. This one: “Long story short: a few years ago a group of American and Norwegian researchers did a study to see what made babies improve at walking. They discovered that the key factor wasn’t height or weight or age or brain development or any other innate trait but rather (surprise!) the amount of time they spent firing their circuits, trying to walk.

However well this finding might support our thesis, its real use is to paint a vivid picture of what deep practice feels like. It’s the feeling, in short, of being a staggering baby, of intensely, clumsily lurching toward a goal and toppling over. It’s a wobbly, discomfiting sensation that any sensible person would instinctively seek to avoid. Yet the longer the babies remained in that state—the more willing they were to endure it, and to permit themselves to fail—the more myelin they built, and the more skill they earned. The staggering babies embody the deepest truth about deep practice: to get good, it’s helpful to be willing, even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill.”

The power of sleep in the animal kingdom is exemplified by the cheetah. It’s the fastest land animal on earth—able to accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour in just three seconds—and yet it also spends up to eighteen hours a day sleeping.
Arianna Huffington

What to do, what not to do

“From the beginning of time, people have struggled with sleep. As a result, we’ve accumulated a staggering body of wisdom about it—techniques and tips passed down from generation to generation. And we could fill a decent-sized library (or a really spacious thumb drive) with all the sleep advice that’s been amassed in just the last decade in the wake of all the new scientific research.

There is no silver sleeping bullet that’s going to do the trick for everybody. People’s reasons for not getting enough sleep are deeply personal, specific to their lives and circumstances. And those reasons shift over time. Still, for those looking to improve their sleep life, it makes sense to begin with some of the scientifically proven general principles for good sleep habits.”

Alright. We’re ready for “What To Do, What Not To Do: Tips, Tools, and Techniques.”

Let’s start with THE NUMBER ONE scientifically-proven way to Optimize your sleep.

Q: Can you guess what it is?

A: “Let there be less light!!!”

As we discussed in Sleep 101 and Sleep Smarter and countless other places, your technology—ranging from your smartphone and computers and TV—is NOT (!!!) helping the cause!

Arianna quotes my friend Dan Siegel (check out our Notes on Mindsight). Dan is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA. He says: “People are exposing their eyes to this stream of photons from these objects that basically tell your brain, ‘Stay awake. It’s not time to go to sleep yet.’ So it’s 10 p.m., it’s 11 p.m., it’s midnight—you’re checking for emails, you’re looking for texts—those light beams tell your brain, ‘Don’t secrete melatonin, it’s not time to sleep.’ And you’re up at 12:30, 1, you’re checking some more because you’re up, so why shouldn’t you check? Now, you go to bed at 1, you wake up at 6 because it’s time to go to work, that’s five hours of sleep.”

As Arianna says: “Sound familiar?”

If so… PUT YOUR PHONES AWAY!!! (Hah.) Seriously. She says at least half an hour before you want to go to bed. An HOUR before would be better.

One more thought here: “In fact, a 2015 survey showed that 71 percent of Americans sleep with or next to their smartphones. We should think of light, especially blue light, as an anti-sleeping drug or a stimulant—something few of us would willingly give to ourselves each night before bed, especially when so many of us are using sleeping pills or other sleeping aids in a desperate effort to get some sleep.”

Practically speaking: What time do you want to go to bed tonight? Subtract 30 to 60 minutes from that. That’s when you tuck your phone in for the night. :)

(Or, if you’re really feeling it, join me for a digital sunset! It’s AMAZING what that’s done for my sleep AND for my Deep Love time with the fam! #shutdowncomplete #digitalsunset)

P.S. A few scientifically-proven ways to Optimize your sleep?

  • Get the temperature right: “The National Sleep Foundation recommends 65 degrees and says that sleep is actually disrupted when the temperature rises above 75 degrees or falls below 54 degrees.”
  • Get your exercise on: “We also sleep better when we make time for regular physical activity in our lives.”
  • Eat right and you’ll “sleep tight” but if you eat wrong, you’ll be up “all night long.” Obvious culprits: Caffeine and sugar and alcohol. (Remember that caffeine has a long half-life so, experts say, quit drinking it after 2 p.m. or so. And, you may think you’re sleeping better after drinking but… you’re not.)
  • Get your meditation on. We’ll never be perfect, but we want to get much better at knowing how to flip the worry switch OFF. Meditation, of course, is a REALLY good way to practice!
A 2009 Stanford study found that a six-week mindfulness meditation course helped people who have trouble sleeping fall asleep twice as quickly, in fifteen minutes instead of thirty-three minutes.
Arianna Huffington

Making money while you/because you sleep

“Long before our sleep renaissance began, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—ahead of the curve in so many ways—was talking about getting eight hours of sleep. ‘I’m more alert and I think more clearly,’ he told The Wall Street Journal. ‘I just feel so much better all day long if I’ve had eight hours.’ In the same article, venture capitalist Marc Andreesen talked about the lessons he learned after his sleep-deprived days launching Netscape: ‘I would spend the whole day wishing I could go home and go back to bed.’ Now he knows how to get the best out of himself: ‘I can get by on seven and a half without too much trouble. Seven and I start to degrade. Six is suboptimal. Five is a big problem. Four means I’m a zombie.’”

That’s from a chapter called “Sleep and the Workplace” in which we learn that a lot of the tech companies keeping us up at night via their apps and other blue-light photon generators are also learning just how important sleep is for their employee’s well-being.

One of the leading sleep exemplars? Jeff Bezos.

Now, if the wealthiest person on the planet (and first person worth over $100 BILLION) swears by eight hours of sleep perhaps we can all consider the same protocol? :)

Arianna also quotes Warren Buffett who said this in a 2008 Letter to Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway: “When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits.”

How would you rate yourself at eight hours of sleep per night? Seven? Six? Five? Here’s to investing the right amount of time into our most valuable asset. (That would be YOU.)

Boards of directors need to acknowledge that a CEO who’s bragging about getting only four hours of sleep a night is essentially saying that he or she is making decisions while drunk. They need to see that that’s not something to be applauded or rewarded. In fact, it’s a massive red flag.
Arianna Huffington

Sleep: It does a body good

“One of her [Cheri Mah, of the Stanford Sleep Disorders clinic and Research Laboratory] most widely cited studies was published in 2011. Mah had eleven members of the Stanford basketball team wear sleep sensors for two weeks. She recorded their normal sleep patterns—they averaged just more than six and a half hours each night—along with statistics on sprints, free throws, and three-point shots. Then, for five to seven weeks, she had them aim for a minimum of ten hours in bed each night, spending as much of the time as possible asleep (‘sleep extension,’ as it’s called). The players’ sleep average went up to eight and a half hours, and the increases in performance were dramatic. Sprint times were .7 seconds faster, free-throw shooting went up 9 percent, and three-point shooting increased 9.2 percent. That’s an amazing difference for such elite athletes—and all achieved just by sleeping more. Ask any athletes you know if they’re interested in shaving nearly a second off their sprint time or increasing their performance in any category by nearly 10 percent, and you’ll have their attention. The study also had participants report their mood, which improved significantly as well.”

That’s from one of the most fun chapters in the book: “The Ultimate Performance Enhancer” in which we learn more about the sleep habits of some of the best athletes on the planet and Arianna tells us: “Sleep is clearly the next innovation frontier in sports.”

Get this: The all-time tennis great Roger Federer says, “If I don’t sleep eleven to twelve hours a day, it’s not right. If I don’t have that amount of sleep, I hurt myself.” He just doesn’t feel right if he doesn’t get ELEVEN to TWELVE hours of sleep per day?! <- !!!

And, when he’s playing at Wimbledon, he rents TWO houses so his young family can sleep in a different HOUSE so he can make sure his sleep is dialed. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why he’s won 20 Majors and over $100 million over the course of his career. #allin

Federer and LeBron James must be reading the same play book. LeBron tries to get twelve (!!!)hours of sleep per day when he’s training as well.

And, how about Tom Brady. You know what time the five-time Super Bowl champion goes to bed? 8:30 p.m. Wonder if that’s helping him dominate into his 40’s. Arianna quotes him saying: “The decisions that I make always center around performance enhancement. I want to be the best I can be every day.”

So, although we do have Olympic athletes and coaches and NCAA-Championship teams that love Optimizing with PhilosophersNotes, maybe you’re not trying to win Wimbledon or an NBA title or a Super Bowl.

But… ECHO!! Want to perform at your best? Prioritize your rest.

One of the most important findings is that sleep is essentially like bringing in the overnight cleaning crew to clear the toxic waste proteins that accumulate between brain cells during the day.
Arianna Huffington

Alarms: Work-down vs. wake-up

“The array of sleep-inducing amenities includes … the work-down call, which is my favorite feature. This is sort of the opposite of a wake-up call—the front desk rings you to tell you that if you’re going to make your bedtime on time, you need to start wrapping things up. And then they even offer tips for how to wind down.

After all, there are few appointments throughout the day that are as important as bedtime. (And if the word ‘bedtime’ sounds childish or embarrassing, feel free not to use it, but remember, there’s nothing childish or embarrassing about being well rested). Yet our appointment with sleep is one we don’t seem to mind missing, day after day, night after night. When we think of sleep as an actual appointment—a meeting of sorts, with ourselves—we’re much more likely to grant it the time it deserves. Given that we now set alarms on our smartphones and smartwatches for things of much less importance, the work-down call is a great idea to adopt.”

That’s from a chapter called “From Hollywood and Washington…” in which we learn about what Hollywood stars and Washington politicians are doing to Optimize their sleep. That particular passage is from a section on how hotels are prioritizing making sure you get a great night of sleep. I LOVE the idea of a “work-down call.”

Reminds me of a similar idea we talked about in John Durant’s The Paleo Manifesto where he told us: “A useful technique is setting an alarm clock—not to wake up, but to get ready for bed. Set an alarm for an hour before bedtime. When it goes off, finish up any work on the computer, turn off the TV, turn off any unnecessary lights, and start to wind down for the day.”

So… Would you rather get UP with the sound of an alarm or start your end-of-the-day routine with the sound of an alarm?

(btw: While you consider that question, here’s what our friendly sleep researcher James Maas says about alarms: “If you need an alarm clock to wake you up, if you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning, or if you’re tired during the day, you haven’t slept enough.”)

I don’t know about you, but as a guy who hasn’t used an alarm to get up for years (aside from the occasional travel day), I can’t even imagine using an adrenalin-producing alarm to get out of bed. (Arianna points out that even the *word* “alarm” has a terrible connotation.)

(I just looked up the definition: “an anxious awareness of danger.” <- Yah. That’s an awesome way to start the day, eh? lol)

Good news: If you set a “work-down”/shut-down complete alarm this evening, you might not need a “wake-up” alarm tomorrow morning. That seems like a really solid trade. If you agree, what time shall we call you to make sure you’re shutting down tonight?

Here’s to Optimizing our sleep so we’ve got the joyful energy to give the world all we’ve got!

I have a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson by my bed that helps me silence my mind: ‘Finish every day, and be done with it. . . . You have done what you could—some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as fast as you can, tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.'
Arianna Huffington

About the author

Authors

Arianna Huffington

mother, sister, flat shoe advocate, sleep evangelist, HuffPost founder, and founder and CEO of Thrive Global: www.thriveglobal.com
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