Publisher: Penguin Random House
Pages: 400; Price: Rs
The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time
The trigger for this book comes from author Arianna Huffington’s own personal experience. In April 2007 she fell over from stress and exhaustion. The one whose life revolved around FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) suddenly found herself struggling to stay afloat. The journalist, multimillionaire, networker, ex-politician, author and all-round celebrity had got herself in a heavy bother. She had just returned home after taking her daughter Christina, then a junior in high school, on a tour of prospective colleges. She banged her cheek as she went down, losing consciousness. The next thing she knew was she had woken up in a pool of blood and her face was a mass of pain. The Doctor informed her that she had broken her cheekbone when she collapsed from exhaustion caused by working regular 18 hour days for the two years it took to build ‘The Huffington Post’ site. The site of course has gone to become one of the most widely read in the US.
Arianna Huffington though, learnt one of the most important lessons of her life with that one incident. That is how she painfully and powerfully rediscovered what her mother, with no formal education or background in health or science, knew instinctively all those years ago in Athens: No matter the constraints, Sleep is a fundamental human need that must be respected. From that day on she reversed her life back in time to include the cycle where sleep was revered. And we all know where Arianna Huffington’s life has gone from there.
In the nine intervening years she has turned that incident into an entire movement. She has done a TED talk, countless media appearances, workshops and has also found time to publish her first book, titled ‘Thrive.’
Huffington wants her readers to understand the gigantic problem the entire human race is inching towards in the belief that productivity equals success. She fears that, coupled with the ability to be “on” 24/7 thanks to technology, it could become a cause for a major worldwide epidemic. And assuming that success invites bedfellows like overwork and burnout, is merely our attempt to justify our lack of sleep and look on it as a passing phase that would right itself on its own. That’s not going to happen if Arianna Huffington’s book is anything to go by.
This book under review is sectioned into two halves. The first half, ‘The Wake-Up Call’ uses examples from history, religion, science and economics to put forward evidence and arguments on why we need sleep. Statistics, anecdotes and factoids buttress that claim. But the most compelling information comes from Huffington’s claim that $63 billion was lost to the US economy because of absenteeism and ‘Presenteeism- when employees are at work but not cognitively focused.’
And Huffington predicts that ‘Nap rooms’ in corporations are going to be as prevalent as conference rooms. She also believes that Politicians who sleep less are basically people who structure their lives so badly that their decision making is chronically compromised. And that bit is probably universally true all across the world. We’ve seen from recent examples how Politicians from across the globe, make tall claims of putting in a lot of hard work with little sleep and end up making a mess on the most crucial aspects of Governance.
The second part of this book concerns itself with providing solutions. “The Way Forward,” literally waxes eloquent on how to get more sleep. Huffington of course recommends that all communication devices should be escorted out of the bedroom and the very routine should take the form of a ritual in order that it can become sacrosanct like it was in the time of our ancestors.
Huffington also adds-on nuggets from her own experience as an integral part of this wellness initiative. Hot baths, candles, chamomile tea, and meditation, helps in aiding the process, she opines. But if the shift in mindset is not forthcoming then the entire effort would become pointless. She believes in the fact that sleep gives us a chance to refocus on the essence of who we are and it’s going to happen only if we keep the world within and without in proper perspective. Of course prioritizing health over traditional metrics of success is not going to be a cakewalk.
Arianna Huffington’s understanding of the need for sleep is unquestionable. In fact we all know that we need sleep for our bodies and minds to function optimally. She indeed makes a very strong case for a change of direction in work-life balance estimation. Unfortunately what’s unclear is whether she herself practices what she preaches.
Given that her pet baby ‘The Huffington Post’ is amongst the fastest growing media startups and with public knowledge of the work ethic that keeps it in the thick of things, there are serious doubts raised about whether she herself has made the seismic shift to a more balanced lifestyle. We’ve known of wellness gurus who preach but do not wholeheartedly practice. Will Arianna Huffington join that group or will she blaze a trail that is all her own? The jury is not out on that yet!
