Arianna Huffington

Lewis Howes:                 This is 5-Minute Friday!!

Welcome, everyone, to today’s episode. We have a very special guest today, her name is Arianna Huffington. She’s here in the studio in Los Angeles, Greatness studio, and she is the co-founder, and president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, and author of fifteen books.

She’s also been named to Time Magazine’s list of The World’s 100 Most Influential People, and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Her fifteenth book is called, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night At A Time. And it’s all on the science, history and mystery of sleep.

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Lewis Howes:                 What would be the ideal routine for you, in terms of going to bed and then waking up?

Arianna Huffington:       Great! I love that! So, I’ll give you my routine. I’ll give you my nightly ritual. But what I recommend, for everybody watching, is to create your own ritual. I mean, it’s almost like I give you a menu and you need to experiment and see what is it that does it for you?

For me, it’s like 30 minutes before I’m going to go to sleep, turning off all my devices and gently escorting them out of the bedroom.

Lewis Howes:                 Escorting them out! On a chariot? You put them on a horse?

Arianna Huffington:       You put them in their little homes outside the bedroom. Turning off the lights, the bright lights. I just have one night stand light and one light in the bathroom. Then, having a really, really hot, wonderful bath.

Lewis Howes:                 Really? A warm bath?

Arianna Huffington:       Yeah, with Epsom salts, which are very relaxing, and flickering candles. But if you guys don’t like baths, have a shower.

Lewis Howes:                 Yeah, I like baths. I’ve got one, but I’ve never used it.

Arianna Huffington:       You can have a shower.

Lewis Howes:                 So, hot is better than cold?

Arianna Huffington:       Yeah! You basically want to slow down your brain and soothe your muscles and everything is like, powering it down.

Lewis Howes:                 I guess when you get out of a hot tub at night, I always feel ready to sleep.

Arianna Huffington:       Exactly, the hot tub is perfect. If you have a hot tub, go to the hot tub. I don’t have a hot tub, so I do the bath. And then, put on – if you sleep naked, you sleep naked – but if you have PJs or nightdress or whatever, make sure that you wear clothes for bed.

I used to sleep in my gym clothes, and then your brain gets these confusing messages. “Are we going to the gym, or are we powering down?” So, even if you wear a Tee-shirt, make sure it’s not a Tee-shirt you wear to the gym.

And then, in bed, I only read physical books. I don’t read anything on screens. Anybody who is reading The Sleep Revolution in bed, I will consider it a personal victory, if you actually fall asleep while reading it.

Lewis Howes:                 There you go, yeah, read twenty pages for the night, fall asleep.

Arianna Huffington:       Whatever, ten pages, you get drowsy, you let that book drop, you turn off the light, you’re asleep.

So, that is incredibly important. For those who have children, you know that that’s how you put your child to bed. You don’t just drop your child in bed, you give them a bath, you put them in their PJs, you read to them, you kind of transition.

It’s like the “Goodnight moon,” we say goodnight to everything, which is really a demarcation line between your day, with all its stresses, however blessed our lives may be, every day has stresses, challenges, difficult things and incompletions.

There is nobody who has any interesting job, or is a busy mum, who finishes the day and says, “I did absolutely everything that was on my list, or I should have done.” Never! So, you need to somehow tell your brain and your body, “We did what we did, this day, and now the day has come to a close,” and we need to fully recharge.

Lewis Howes:                 Cross the line.

Arianna Huffington:       Cross the line, we need to cross that line.

Lewis Howes:                 Not be in bed, on the screen, thinking about work, and then trying to sleep at the same time. Creating a cut-off line.

Arianna Huffington:       I just really, I wish I could convey that feeling that I absolutely thoroughly believe, now, to everybody watching, because I promise, that if you do this, every aspect of your life will improve. If you have any lingering doubt that you’re not going to be as productive, just try it.

Because, it’s like getting in the Tesla, you’re going to get to your destination faster, right?

Lewis Howes:                 Smoother, cleaner.

Arianna Huffington:       Smoother, with consuming less energy. And also, the advantage of energy that is self-renewing, is a little bit like the self-renewing energy of sleep.

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Lewis Howes:                 Hey, guys! If you enjoyed this inspirational clip from a past episode of the show, then you’ll love the free book I’m giving away right now. It’s called The Millionaire Morning. It includes some of my best tips for starting off your day with a millionaire mindset. Get your free copy at themillionairemorning.com and just pay shipping.

Again, check it out right now, themillionairemorning.com.