How to succeed? Get more sleep
5,679,419 views | Arianna Huffington • TEDWomen 2010
Arianna Huffington
Journalist
Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of thirteen books. She is the co-host of “Left, Right & Center,” a political roundtable radio program.

00:00
My big idea is a very, very small idea that can unlock billions of big ideas that are at the moment dormant inside us. And my little idea that will do that is sleep.
00:16
(Laughter)
00:18
(Applause)
00:22
This is a room of type A women. This is a room of sleep-deprived women. And I learned the hard way the value of sleep. Two-and-a-half years ago, I fainted from exhaustion. I hit my head on my desk. I broke my cheekbone, I got five stitches on my right eye. And I began the journey of rediscovering the value of sleep. And in the course of that, I studied, I met with medical doctors, scientists, and I'm here to tell you that the way to a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is getting enough sleep.
01:06
(Applause)
01:11
And we women are going to lead the way in this new revolution, this new feminist issue. We are literally going to sleep our way to the top -- literally --
01:21
(Laughter)
01:23
(Applause)
01:28
because unfortunately, for men, sleep deprivation has become a virility symbol. I was recently having dinner with a guy who bragged that he had only gotten four hours sleep the night before. And I felt like saying to him -- but I didn't say -- I felt like saying, "You know what? if you had gotten five, this dinner would have been a lot more interesting."
01:51
(Laughter)
01:55
There is now a kind of sleep deprivation one-upmanship. Especially here in Washington, if you try to make a breakfast date, and you say, "How about eight o'clock?" they're likely to tell you, "Eight o'clock is too late for me, but that's OK, I can get a game of tennis in and do a few conference calls and meet you at eight." And they think that means they are so incredibly busy and productive, but the truth is, they're not, because we, at the moment, have had brilliant leaders in business, in finance, in politics, making terrible decisions. So a high IQ does not mean that you're a good leader, because the essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.
02:40
(Laughter)
02:42
And we've had far too many icebergs hitting our Titanics. In fact, I have a feeling that if Lehman Brothers was Lehman Brothers and Sisters, they might still be around.
02:53
(Laughter)
02:55
(Applause)
02:57
While all the brothers were busy just being hyper-connected 24/7, maybe a sister would have noticed the iceberg, because she would have woken up from a seven-and-a-half- or eight-hour sleep, and have been able to see the big picture.
03:13
So as we are facing all the multiple crises in our world at the moment, what is good for us on a personal level, what's going to bring more joy, gratitude, effectiveness in our lives and be the best for our own careers, is also what is best for the world. So I urge you to shut your eyes, and discover the great ideas that lie inside us; to shut your engines and discover the power of sleep.
03:46
Thank you.
03:48
(Applause)
Bo Wang, Translator
AiHack King, Reviewer
00:00
我的绝妙想法 实际上看似微不足道 但是却能够激发 层出不穷的绝妙创意 这些想法雪藏于酣睡时我们的大脑中。 那么如何用我的想法使之释放呢 就是睡觉。
00:16
（笑声）
00:18
（掌声）
00:22
在座的各位女士都是最优秀的人。 在座的各位女士 也都饱受睡眠不足的折磨。 我不辍的思索着， 睡眠的价值。 两年半以前， 我因过度劳累而晕倒。 头撞在了桌子上，下颌骨也骨折了， 我的右眼缝了5针。 而后我便开始 重新探索睡眠的