Monday, May 30, 2016

Review of Instaread Summary of "The Sleep Revolution Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time" by Arianna Huffington



Review of

Instaread Summary of The Sleep Revolution Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time by Arianna Huffington 

Five out of five stars

 It is a fairly obvious truism that the American working public is in general sleep-deprived and a lot of it is due to technology. With a smartphone in our hands, we can check our email and contacts 24/7, specifically early in the morning, late at night and on weekends. This “office in the hand” situation means that we can work and be contacted for work anywhere. For many people, the last thing they do before turning off the light in bed is check their email. By checking in, their mind is in no condition to check out and sleep.
As is stated several times in the summary, for many people keeping late hours is considered a sign of their desire to succeed and be a team player, going above what is necessary. I was once admonished for objecting to the CEO’s expressed plan to put a cot in a side room so that people working late could conveniently get some nap time before sitting back down at their workstation. Some of the most successful people in computing are notorious for sending out middle of the night emails.
 There is not a single point in this summary that is factually in dispute, working long hours for extended periods of time has repeatedly been conclusively documented as being counterproductive. Tired people make mistakes that often cost more than the gain of them working the extra hours.
 The solution to this problem is simple, there needs to be a paradigm shift where it is universally acknowledged that working long hours for a long time is personally and professionally counterproductive. The badge of honor of pulling all-nighters in a caffeine fueled frenzy needs to be debunked.
 While the list of key takeaways contains some very obvious points, the overall theme is accurate and a key to increasing the overall productivity of the work force. Study after study has concluded that the productivity of the American worker is largely stagnant, much of that could be avoided if more and better sleep were a greater part of the day. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes.

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