Arianna Huffington Offers 7 Tips For Getting A Better Night's Sleep
She installed two nap rooms for her staff at the Huffington Post, gave a popular TED talk on the benefits of adequate rest, and dedicates a large part of her new book "Thrive" to the subject.
"The most basic shift we can make in redefining success in our lives has to do with our strained relationship to sleep," she writes.
She stands firmly against the culture of professionals equating their lack of sleep with working hard, and points to studies that show negative effects on decision making, focus, mood, and health that come with exhaustion.
Huffington consulted with sleep experts to narrow down a list of the most useful tips to ease into a deep sleep and wake up refreshed and poised to be productive. Here's her advice, as it appears in "Thrive":
- Get a new pillow. And a new pillowcase.
- Make your bedroom darker and keep it cool.
- Practice deep breathing before bed.
- Take a warm bath before bed.
- Exercise or at least walk every day.
- Banish all LCD screens (laptops, tablets, smartphones, TV) at night.
- Cut down on coffee after 2 p.m. and avoid alcohol right before bedtime to give the body time to metabolize it.
"Too many of us are fueled by the fear that getting the proper amount of sleep means we must not be passionate enough about our work and our life," she writes. "By sleeping more we, in fact, become more competent and in control of our lives."