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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
The Sleep Revolution summary
Arianna Huffington
Transforming Your Life One Night At A Time
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3.9 (208 ratings)
16 mins
8 key ideas
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What is The Sleep Revolution about?
These blinks are about the importance of a basic human necessity that we often brush aside: sleep. Getting enough sleep isn’t just about feeling better in the morning – it improves your work performance, health and even your personal relationships. Similarly, sleep deprivation isn’t a by-product of hard work; rather, it prevents you from reaching your full potential. The Sleep Revolution (2016) explains why sleep is so critical, and what you can do to get more of it.
About the Author
Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, and a pioneer of implementing better sleep policies in offices. She is the author of several best-selling books, including Third World America and On Becoming Fearless.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 8
Workaholism is robbing Americans of sleep, and the poor suffer the most.
Sarvshreshth Gupta, a 22-year-old analyst at Goldman Sachs, hadn’t slept for two consecutive nights when he called his father from his office cubicle at 2:40 a.m. one night. Although Gupta’s father tried to calm him down, Sarvshreshth was found dead on the pavement outside his high-rise apartment building just a few hours later. He jumped to his death, no longer able to bear the pressure of work.
Like Gupta, Americans today are suffering from sleep deprivation because of compulsive working, or workaholism.
Workaholism is on the rise. Between 1990 and 2000, the average annual American workload increased by a full workweek. In 2014, when a travel company called Skift conducted a survey to figure out why so few people were booking their holiday packages, they found that over 40 percent of the American workforce hadn’t taken a single vacation day that year.
This unhealthy culture of workaholism prevents us from getting enough sleep. In fact, according to a 2010 US government report, 30 percent of all employees get less than six hours of sleep per night, while nearly 70 percent describe their sleep as “insufficient.”
And who suffers the most? The working poor.
Lower-class workers often have to take on several jobs just to pay their bills, so they don’t have time to make sleep a priority. A 2013 survey from the University of Chicago found that a person’s quality of sleep decreases as their wealth decreases, which causes sleepiness and can even lead to sleep-related diseases.
Being overworked isn’t the only problem for the poor, either. A professor at Stony Brook University found that poor neighborhoods also tend to be noisier, which makes it even harder to get a good night’s sleep.
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Who should read The Sleep Revolution
- Anyone who gets sleepy at work or school
- Parents and teachers who aren’t getting enough rest
- Athletes wanting to reach their peak performance
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