On the most recent episode of The Thrive Global Podcast with Sleep Number as the exclusive sponsor and iHeartRadio as the official producer and media partner, Thrive Global founder and CEO Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member, sat down with Bozoma Saint John. In a wide-ranging conversation, Huffington and Saint John spoke about everything from her relationship with sleep to overcoming loss and grief.
Saint John lives in Los Angeles but works in San Francisco, which means frequent air travel — in addition to lots of time spent in Uber cars going from event to event.
When Huffington asked her how she takes care of herself and avoids burnout when she’s “on the plane almost all the time,” Saint John’s answer was immediate: by getting eight hours of sleep a night. (Huffington, for her part, is also an “eight-hour girl.”)
“I love sleep so much. That’s the one thing I won’t sacrifice. I really cannot,” Saint John told Huffington, adding that she has trouble functioning without enough rest.
“I don’t even know how to behave without my sleep,” she said. “I would be a horrible person to be around cranky.”
Given her whirlwind schedule of work, events and travel, people ask her all the time when she finds time to sleep. “I’m a great napper,” Saint John said. “I nap in a lot of places. I nap in a car, you know, now that I take Uber everywhere. I nap on the plane a lot.”
Saint John pointed out that getting enough sleep requires figuring out what works for you at that time in your life and adapting accordingly. For example, she discussed how the birth of her daughter Lael changed her sleep schedule — and brought an end (mostly) to the days of staying out late with friends, waking up and rushing out the door.
Becoming a mother, Saint John said, meant getting up earlier to prepare both herself and her daughter for the day. “That meant my bedtime had to be earlier, so I had to adjust,” she said. “You adjust your life.”
To hear the full conversation on iHeartRadio, click here.
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