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.