Arianna Huffington Talks About the Terrifying Place Exhaustion Can Take You

On this week’s episode of Uninterrupted, Huffington discusses her new book, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night at a Time, which was inspired by that harrowing experience and her toxic relationship with sleep. 

“Once you really understand the importance of sleep, it’s no longer hard to prioritize it,” says Arianna. “We’re living in a culture which is still under the delusion that we sleep when we’re dead, you snooze you lose. And so we have to really be convinced ourselves, and have some people around us who are also convinced, to support us in order to bring about changes.”

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Arianna realizes that for some, eight to 10 hours of sleep a night is not just a low priority, but a privilege they can’t afford. She notes that when it comes to working mothers, who may be juggling multiple jobs and kids, policies (both on corporate and governmental levels) must change in order to guarantee the right to a good night’s rest. “There are a lot of things that need to happen politically: a living wage, paid family leave, etc. Sleep is not a panacea, but it is something that is free and available and should be within our control.”

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When Arianna isn’t sleeping, she is running a media empire, and her daugher, Christina Huffington, who also joined us on this week’s episode, is now utilizing The Huffington Post to launch a project she’s deeply passionate about. Christina and her mom recently debuted the new video series, Talk to Me, which seeks to provide a platform for women of different generations to share important stories and lessons they’ve learned throughout their lives. 

Back in the studio today with the one and only @ariannahuff her awesome daughter, @christinahuffington. #whuninterrupted

A photo posted by Caitlin Abber (@everydaycaitlin) on Jun 27, 2016 at 1:07pm PDT

“I would read these interviews that my mom did and I would watch her on TV, and I would realize that she was sort of being asked the same questions over and over again, and giving the same answers,” says Christina, regarding her inspiration behind the series. “I thought, if that’s the case with her, this is probably the case with so many people who are used to being interviewed over and over.” 

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Since Talk to Me debuted earlier this year, it’s featured conversations between Oprah and her adopted South African “daughters,” Melinda Gates and her daughter, and of course, Arianna and Christina. 

As close as these two women are, there are still some questions left unasked and unanswered between them. For Arianna, the big question is: When will Christina make her a grandmother?

TO FIND OUT ABOUT ARIANNA’S PRE-SLEEP RITUALS, AND WHAT CHRISTINA HAS LEARNED FROM WORKING WITH HER MOTHER, LISTEN TO THIS ENTIRE EPISODE OF UNINTERRUPTED ON ITUNES OR SOUNDCLOUD NOW. 

The Women Promoted on This Episode:
“Judith Rodin is the head of The Rockefeller Foundation, and she’s stepping down after 12 years,” says Arianna. “What I admire is that she felt that it was time to step down, sort of at the height of everything that she was doing, because there are other thing she wants to do. She doesn’t want to be running a big organization anymore, and I think that takes guts.”

“There is an amazing young woman named Erica Lafferty Smegielski who is the daughter of the Sandy Hook Principal who was killed in the shooting,” says Christina. “Ericka has spent the last several years really campaigning for common sense gun laws, and I just think that is so extraordinary, and to be able to turn a pain that I cannot even begin to fathom into trying to create real change so that other families don’t have to experience it either.” 

Follow These People on Twitter:
Women’s Health: @womenshealthmag
Caitlin Abber: @everydaycaitlin
Arianna Huffington: @ariannahuff
Christina Huffington: @cshuffington

Episode Credits:
Uninterrupted is produced by Caitlin Abber, and recorded at CBS Studios. Editorial support is provided by Lisa Chudnofsky.

Our theme music is “Bullshit” by Jen Miller.