The document summarizes an interview with Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post. It discusses how she had a "wake-up call" in 2007 when she fainted from exhaustion, which prompted her focus on well-being. She now prioritizes getting 8 hours of sleep per night and has a bedtime routine. Huffington believes sleep enhances performance and shares how it has improved her own performance and life. The Huffington Post has grown significantly since its founding in 2005 and now receives 200 million monthly visitors.

1. 34 35
August – October 2016
Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington
consistently appears in Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful
Women list. In 2007, she fainted from exhaustion,
a “painful wake-up call” that transformed her
approach to work and wellbeing.
| Mary Appleton
Give sleep
the respect
it deserves
ARIANNA
HUFFINGTON:
Arianna Huffington
co-founder, president,
and editor-in-chief,
The Huffington Post
Media Group
Arianna is also author of 15
books. She has been
named in Time Magazine’s
list of the world’s 100 most
influential people and the
Forbes Most Powerful
Women list.
huffingtonpost.com

2. 36
August – October 2016
37
LEADERSHIP
The Big Interview - Arianna Huffington
LEADERSHIP
The Big Interview - Arianna Huffington
A turning point for the site, and for
online media, came in 2012 when HuffPost
contributor, David Wood, was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, making
HuffPost the first commercially run US digital
media enterprise to achieve this recognition.
It sparked fierce debate in the wider media,
which questioned the legitimacy of the site
as a credible news outlet.
The woman behind the brand, Arianna
Huffington, argued the accolade not only
celebrated Wood’s “exemplary journalism”
but her website’s “commitment to original
reporting that affects both the national
conversation and the lives of real people.”
Today, HuffPost publishes new content
every day on subjects from politics to
wellness, across 16 international editions.
Huffington’s clear vision is to “build the
leading global open platform and publisher,
using every available tool and platform to
inform, inspire, entertain and empower”.
Born in Greece in 1950, Huffington moved
to the UK in 1966. She became a bestselling
author at 23 with The Female Woman, and
in 1994, entered the US spotlight as wife
of Republican Michael Huffington during
his unsuccessful Senate bid. In 2011, AOL
acquired The Huffington Post for US$315m,
with Huffington becoming editor-in-chief of
The Huffington Post Media Group.
Despiteunprecedentedsuccess,Huffington
experienced her own turning point in 2007,
when she fainted from sleep-deprivation
and exhaustion, hit her head on a desk, and
broke her cheekbone. This “painful wake-up
now, that relationship is in crisis. At the
same time, our Golden Age of sleep
science is revealing all the ways in which
sleep plays a vital role in decision making,
emotional intelligence, cognitive function
and creativity. Not only is there no trade-
off between living a well-rounded life and
high performance, performance is actually
improved when we include time for renewal.
Glamourising sleep deprivation is deeply
embedded in our culture. Everywhere you
turn, it’s celebrated, from “you snooze, you
lose”to“I’llsleepwhenI’mdead.”Butperhaps
those who equate sleep with laziness or lack
of dedication can be convinced otherwise
by looking at the world of sport.
To professional athletes, sleep is not about
spirituality, work-life balance, or even health
and wellbeing; it’s about using every available
tool to increase the chances of winning.
Take the Golden State Warriors’ Andre
Iguodala. Early in his basketball career, he’d
stay up late watching TV and wake early to
hit the gym. When he turned 30, he told the
Warriors’ director of performance he wanted
to see a sleep specialist and started taking his
relationship with sleep seriously. He banished
electronic devices from his bedroom, started
call”, as she terms it, prompted her to focus
on her own wellbeing and incited a desire to
create boundaries and routines – starting by
making sure she gets enough sleep…
How did your wake-up call influence
your attitude to wellbeing?
For years, I bought into our collective delusion
that burnout is the price we pay for success.
When I had my wake-up call, I’d just
returned home after taking my daughter
Christina, then a junior in high school, on a
tour of prospective colleges. We’d agreed
that, during the days, I would not be on my
BlackBerry. But each night we’d eat dinner
late and get back to the hotel exhausted.
Christina would go to sleep while I acted the
sneaky teenager and stayed up late.
I’d respond to all the ‘urgent’ emails and
attempt to squeeze a day’s work into what
should have been sleep time. This would go
on until about 3am, when I could no longer
keep my eyes open. After three or four hours’
sleep, I’d be up for the day shift.
Work was more important than sleep to
my 2007 self. Because, hey, I’m running a
start-up; one that’s got my name on it. Clearly
I’m indispensable, so I must work all night,
responding to 100 emails, then writing a blog
post, while being the perfect mother during
the day. This way of living seemed to serve
me well — until it didn’t.
From then on, I knew I had to make sleep
a priority, starting with creating a mindful
bedtime routine. I now treat my transition
to sleep as a sacrosanct ritual.
Cansleep enhanceperformance?
We share a common need for sleep and
though this has been a constant throughout
human history, our relationship with sleep
has gone through ups and downs. Right
tracking his sleep and went to bed earlier. As
he put it, “sleep good, feel good, play good”.
The results? His playing time increased by
12%andhisthree-pointshotpercentagemore
than doubled. His points per minute went
up 29%, his free-throw percentage increased
by 8.9%, and his turnovers went down 37%.
He was named the most valuable player
(MVP)forthe2015NBAfinals.Afterwards,he
Instagrammed a picture of himself cradling
the MVP award — while sleeping!
Howhassleepimprovedyour
ownperformance?
Once I started giving sleep the respect it
deserves, my life improved in almost every
way. Now, 95% of the time I get eight hours
of sleep a night – and instead of waking up
feeling I have to trudge through activities, I am
joyful about the day’s possibilities. I’m better
able to recognise red flags and rebound from
setbacks. It’s like being dialled into a different
channel with less static.
Did you expect TheHuffingtonPost
to grow into what it is today?
Bringing together people from different
parts of my life and facilitating interesting
Launched in 2005 as an online news platform,
The Huffington Post was initially known for
blogging and real-time news aggregation,
providing a liberal outlook on the political
landscape. The site now has 200 million
unique monthly visitors and 100,000
contributors from politicians to celebrities and
policy experts. The Duchess of Cambridge even
featured as a guest editor earlier this year.
Our relationship with
sleep is in crisis
Arianna
Huffington’s
bedtime
ritual
First, I turn off
my electronic
devices and escort
them out of my
bedroom. Then,
I take a hot bath
with Epsom
Salts and a
candle nearby.
I don’t sleep
in my workout
clothes as I used
to (think of the
mixed message that
sends to our brains)
but have pyjamas,
nightdresses,
even T-shirts
dedicated to
sleep. Sometimes
I have a cup of
camomile or
lavender tea. I love
reading real,
physical books –
especially poetry
and novels that
have nothing to
do with work.

3. 38
LEADERSHIP
Transparency
LEADERSHIP
The Big Interview – Arianna Huffington
conversations is in my Greek DNA.
From the start, the point of The
Huffington Post was to take the
conversations found at water coolers
and around dinner tables and open
them up online.
What’s the secret to
creating ‘followship’
among your people?
In a climate of change, we’re
constantly adapting and iterating, but
stay true to our values of community
and engagement. People want to
work at HuffPost to tell the important
and entertaining stories of our time
while helping people tell their stories.
How has traditional media
evolved in the past decade?
A big part of the evolution is a rapidly
expanding universe of platforms
where people engage with news. The
possibilities for meaningful connection have
rapidly expanded too. The online world is a
global conversation, with millions of people
pulling up a seat at the table every day.
Are there any drawbacks?
The ubiquity of technology and its addictive
nature means we carry our work with us. Our
relationship with our devices is still in
that honeymoon phase where we can’t
get enough of each other. A 2015 survey
showed that 71% of Americans sleep
with, or next to, their smartphones.
So how are you responding?
We use all the tools at our disposal to
tell the most important and entertaining
stories, and apply timeless skills of
storytelling to our expanding universe
of platforms. But we’re also relentlessly
presenting to our readers multiple
ways to disconnect from all platforms
and to reconnect with loved ones
— and themselves.
What’s the most important
lesson you’ve learned?
I’ve learned a great deal about failure
and resilience. My mother used to tell
me “failure is not the opposite of success, it’s
a stepping stone to success.” I believe we’re
not put on Earth to accumulate victories
and avoid failures, but to be sand-papered
down until what’s left is who we truly are.
When we launched HuffPost , one reviewer
said the movie equivalent of the site was
“Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into
one”. A year later, when that same reviewer
asked about blogging for HuffPost, I happily
said yes; holding grudges is one of the most
draining things you can do.
What would be your parting advice
on achieving balance?
Remember what we’re told on airplanes:
“secure your own mask before helping
others, even your child”. The better we are at
taking care of ourselves, the more effective
we’ll be in taking care of others.
FOOD:
Grilled fish, fresh
fruit, and over-
steamed vegetables
(that everybody else
makes a face at).
BOOK:
I love books
that use the
power of stories
to make us see the
world differently. In the
1840s, long before he
became prime minister,
Benjamin Disraeli wanted
to wake people to the
plight of the British working
class. His novel, Sybil, raised
awareness, provoking
outrage, and leading to
social reforms. Disraeli knew
one of the most effective
ways to touch people is
through narrative – putting
flesh and blood on data.
APP:
Headspace.
Former Buddhist
monk Andy Puddicombe
created it to make
mindfulness meditation
easily available. We’ve
made the app available
free to all HuffPost
employees.
WAY TO RELAX:
A nap! I use my office
couch as our nap rooms
at The Huffington Post are
in high demand. I used to
close the curtains of the
glass wall in my office
that looks out over the
newsroom, but leaving
them open sends a clear
message that
there’s no
stigma attached
to napping.
PIECE OF
ADVICE
YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN:
“Don’t miss the moment”
was one of my mother’s
favourite sayings; it
embodied the philosophy
of her life.
transparency
The
power
of
In an age of connectivity
and openness, it’s no surprise
that people want clarity,
whether it’s in the political
arena, their personal
relationship or their job.
Leaders from some of the
most recognised companies
on the planet explain why
their organisations will
always be transparent.
39
August – October 2016
| Emily Sexton-Brown
Holding grudges is one of the
most draining things you can do
Myfavourite…