Revolutionizing Sleep with Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington, the woman behind one of America’s biggest news sources, The Huffington Post, is changing how we view sleep with her new book, The Sleep Revolution.

“There’s a tremendous braggadocio going on,” Huffington said about sleep in a recent interview with NPR, and she’s right. Many people, including college students, working professionals and even politicians, like to brag about not getting enough sleep despite how they feel physically. In fact, a 2014 report from the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep Health Index™ found that 45 percent of Americans acknowledged that insufficient sleep has affected their activities at least once within a seven-day period.

According to Huffington, we’re in the middle of a ‘sleep crisis,’ one where we are sacrificing sleep to spend time in other activities, including work or social engagements. When we reduce the amount of sleep we get, we build up a sleep deficit that can negatively affect our quality of life.

Lack of sleep has been linked to mood swings, depression and health issues such as high blood pressure and excessive weight gain. Of even more concern is its impact on your ability to function properly by impairing your ability to reason, make judgements, operate motor vehicles and machinery and more.

Combined, the advances in sleep medicine research and efforts from individuals like Arianna Huffington are helping to change the landscape of how we envision sleep. To learn more about Huffington’s new book, The Sleep Revolution, visit the Penguin Random House website.