From how you can nap at work to whether you should drink before bed, Arianna Huffington just answered all your questions about sleep

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arianna huffington

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Arianna Huffington is begging you: please, get more sleep.

If you ask The Huffington Post founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington about the key to success, she'll tell you that it all comes down to sleep. She should know - she learned this lesson the hard way.

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In 2007, exhausted from only getting a few hours of sleep a night and running on fumes, Huffington's body finally surrendered to her sleep deprivation, and she awoke from her inevitable and unplanned slumber in a pool of her blood from hitting her head on the way down.

This was the wakeup call the media mogul needed to finally prioritize sleep, and now, with the release of her sleep manifesto, "The Sleep Revolution," she wants to help everyone, from world leaders to the everyday worker, get a better night's sleep.

Huffington admits that she's no sleep scientist - but in researching her book she's spoken with enough of them, and delved into enough research, to be considered an expert on the topic.

In her book she brings to light jarring data that ranges from the reach of what she calls "our current sleep crisis" - about 70% of American workers describe their sleep as "insufficient" - to the cost of not sleeping - like irreversible brain damage and erectile dysfunction, for starters.

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Business Insider recently spoke with Huffington about the importance of sleep, its elusiveness in our modern society, and some best practices to get more of it.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.