“Tell me, is there any reason not to feel like you’re in heaven when you crawl into bed every night?” –A Year to Clear
Whether or not you’re sleeping like a baby these days, I invite you to keep reading. In today’s post I’ve excerpted a terrific interview between Oprah and Arianna Huffington, the queen of sleep. It offers a lot more about the subject than just logging in a few Zzz’s every night.
(And PS… If you have a copy of the book A Year to Clear, you have my permission to jump ahead to Week 40 and get a head start on “Getting Good Sleep.” It’s a game changer.)
The One Thing That Will Make Everything In Your Life Better
OPRAH: So you’re saying we need to rethink sleep—a true revolution; that’s why you wrote the book?
Arianna Huffington: Exactly. It feels like we have two threads running through our lives: one pulling us into the world to achieve, the other pulling us back to replenish us. These threads can seem at odds, but really they enforce each other. It’s not a trade-off between success and sleep. Science shows that sleep is a performance-enhancement tool.
OW: What do we lose when we lose out on sleep?
AH: It starts with the brain. We become cognitively impaired. The data show that if you’ve been up for 17 to 19 hours—which is pretty normal for a lot of us; it certainly used to be for me—you have the cognitive impairment equivalent of a 0.05 percent blood alcohol level. That’s just under being legally drunk, and the impairment increases the longer you’re awake. Creativity and performance are affected by sleep deprivation, too. No wonder Charlie Rose is such a fan of naps. In the book, I quote him saying that if he could prep for an interview for another half hour or taking a nap, he’d take a nap. I so identify with that.
OW: You describe sleep deprivation as the new smoking. Is it really that bad?
AH: Absolutely. In fact, I’ve talked to every major sleep scientist, and one from UCLA sent me some old smoking ads in which a doctor said, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!” I think in a few years, we’ll all look back at our dismissive attitudes about sleep in the same way.
OW: You say you were sleepwalking through your own life. What do you think is the first step to taking back control?
AH: You have to acknowledge that something is missing. After I gave a speech in San Francisco, a young woman came up to me and said, “I don’t remember the last time I wasn’t tired.” So many of us aren’t in touch with the feeling of waking up and being fully present in our lives.
OW: I know what that’s like. You become numb. You become zombielike. And then you give less of yourself to everything because there just isn’t enough to give.
AH: Plus, when you’re tired, you’re more likely to doubt yourself, feel anxious, feel depressed. And of course there’s the health impact. The statistics are unbelievable. People who average fewer than six hours of sleep per night are four times likelier than those who get more than seven hours to come down with a cold. Also, the stress hormone cortisone increases when you’re sleep deprived, which can affect weight.
OW: Oh, I fully understand that. I used to be so worn out, I didn’t know if I was hungry or tired or what. I would eat to make myself feel better, but really what I needed was a nap.
AH: I used to stay up, stupidly, to work, and I’d just eat to keep my eyes open. I wasn’t even hungry—it was just a way to power through.
OW: I love that you include a chapter on dreams.
AH: I’ve always been fascinated by dreams—mine are so vivid. I went through a period in my 20s when I wrote down my dreams every morning. Then life intervened, and I stopped doing it. In ancient cultures, sleep was actually seen as a gateway to another world. There’s something sacred in all of us that we need to protect, and sleep is a way to connect with it, nourish it and make it more present in our lives.
Photo: iStockphoto
