Arianna Huffington: 'It Really Makes No Sense' to Think You Can Sleep Less and Get More Done
After a dramatic breakdown that was the result of burnout, the media mogul did deep research on why sleep matters and ultimately wrote the book, 'The Sleep Revolution.'
By Catherine Clifford •
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There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done, especially for overscheduled, ambitious entrepreneurs. One common way to try to manufacture time in the 24-hour cycle is to cut down on shuteye. If you sleep less, then you are awake for more hours, ergo, you get more done, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
"It really makes no sense to think that we are going to be more productive if we give up on sleep," says Arianna Huffington, the media mogul who founded the Huffington Post, during an interview with Entrepreneur.
Related: Arianna Huffington: 'Sleep Deprivation Is the New Smoking'
Huffington, now 65, collapsed from total complete burnout, breaking her cheekbone and coming to in a pool of her own blood. She was forced to change her ways and in the process, Huffington educated herself about the science of sleep and wrote a book detailing her findings, The Sleep Revolution (Harmony, April 2016). In addition, she is also the author of 15 books and is the 70th most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbes's most recent ranking.
"We used to think that when we go to sleep it is like putting the car in the garage and turning the ignition key off, but in fact, not at all. This is actually a time of frenetic activity for the brain," Huffington says. "There is a connection between sleep deprivation and just about every disease."
To hear about what actually happens in our brains when we sleep, watch the video above.
