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Arianna Huffington Reinvents ‘Goodnight Moon’ For The Digital Era

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 19:53 PST, Jan 20, 2017

Arianna Huffington’s new audiobook Goodnight Smartphone is her sarcastic answer to modern era’s “technology-saturated world,” according to Entrepreneur. The Huffington Post co-founder, who founded her health and wellness startup, Thrive Global, recreated the famous childhood bedtime story Goodnight Moon for adults because people are never too old for a good bedtime story, especially if that bedtime story mocks modern-era relations between humans and technology.

Arianna Huffington, who in 2016 announced she was leaving the Huffington Post to found Thrive Global, serves as the self-proclaimed expert on the subject of sleep and calls herself a “sleep evangelist” on her Instagram account.

And with Goodnight Smartphone, Arianna Huffington brings back the classic bedtime story in the form of an audiobook. While the primary idea behind the new audiobook is that using electronics before going to bed is not a good idea, listeners will have to break the rule of putting away all digital devices before sleep.

Narrated by Arianna Huffington in her Greek accent and in a very calming way, Goodnight Smartphone, which can be now downloaded for free on Amazon courtesy of Audible, begins with the author insisting that saying goodnight in today’s “technology-saturated world” is “harder than ever.”

In the audiobook, Arianna Huffington shares her own nighttime routines and helps listeners fall asleep with phrases like “Goodnight sheets, goodnight tweets.”

“Goodnight laptop, which, as a repository for all my daily anxieties and fears, has closed for the night.”

Arianna Huffington also encourages her listeners to create “a sacrosanct ritual,” which obviously doesn’t include Instagram stalking, browsing newsfeeds on Facebook, or thinking who to unfollow on Twitter.

Instead, Arianna Huffington wants listeners to learn the discipline she has previously introduced in her best-selling book titled The Sleep Revolution. Every person’s nighttime ritual has changed “dramatically” since Goodnight Moon was first released, the author says. And that’s why she decided to update the original bedtime story for the digital age.

Arianna Huffington, who worked 18 hours every day to build the Huffington Post, is no stranger to burning out at work, according to CNBC. The 66-year-old Huffington Post co-founder says an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily have to burn out to achieve success and calls it “the myth of the entrepreneur.”

Arianna Huffington admitted that in 2007 she had collapsed while checking emails on the phone after working intense 18-hour days. When she woke up, she found herself on the floor in a pool of her blood with a large cut over her eye. In addition to that, she had a broken her cheekbone.

And that’s exactly when Arianna Huffington said to herself, “it’s enough.” Huffington’s collapse was caused by severe exhaustion, which is a common side effect of burning out at work. But fortunately, Huffington has four tips to boost an entrepreneur’s productivity without burning out.

First of all, Arianna Huffington says it’s essential to get seven to nine hours of sleep every night.

“Our cognitive performance improves. We make better decisions. We are less reactive. We get less upset when bad things happen.”

Secondly, Arianna Huffington advises to put away your phone before sleep and even keeping it out of the bedroom. The Huffington Post co-founder says because people are “addicted” to their phones, they sleep with them by their bed.

Third of all, Arianna Huffington says it also helps to eat a healthy breakfast and never skip it. However, Huffington says it’s even more essential to take your time with food.

And finally, it’s also important to take breaks throughout the working day, and especially during meals.

“Take a colleague and go to a cafeteria or go to a table away from your desk in your office and have lunch.”

[Featured Image by Rainmaker Photo/MediaPunch/AP Images]

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