6 things I learned from following Arianna Huffington's elaborate bedtime routine for a week

As editor-in-chief and cofounder of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington's status as a media mogul is well established.

But lately, she's been making a name for herself as a sleep evangelist.

She recently wrote a book, "The Sleep Revolution," and regularly speaks about the importance of sleep to general health and well-being, as well its role in improving productivity and career success.

Huffington's obsession with sleep began when she collapsed in her home office and "found herself in a pool of blood."

Since then, she has been an outspoken advocate for prioritizing sleep and has developed a detailed bedtime ritual.

Her routine consists of clearing her electronic devices from her bedroom, taking a hot bath with Epsom salts, and writing down what she is grateful for that day. She also wears clothes specifically designated for sleeping, and, most days, doesn't set a morning alarm. Instead, she opts for waking up naturally after getting her eight hours.

As someone who loves sleep but doesn't prioritize it as much as I should, I was curious to see whether Huffington's evening ritual would affect my sleep quality, productivity, and wellbeing.

During my weeklong experiment, I also followed her morning ritual, which consists of meditation, exercise, and yoga.

Prioritizing sleep and dutifully following Huffington's routine — with my own tweaks where appropriate — proved to be a game changer. That said, there were aspects I struggled with, as well.

Here are my six takeaways from Huffington's method for getting a good night's sleep, every night:

No productivity hacks will be effective if I don't get seven to eight hours of sleep

Sleep is my magic formula.

Prior to undertaking this routine, I gave Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey's a try. His ritual involved waking up at 5 a.m., rigorous exercise, and 3o minutes of meditation.

I felt so much better this week doing Huffington's morning and evening routines than I did doing Dorsey's morning routine, simply because I made sure I got enough sleep each night.

The only difference between the rituals is that Huffington practices yoga every morning, and she doesn't have a set time for waking up. I was up at 5:30 a.m. most mornings and felt a lot more refreshed than during my experiment with Dorsey's morning routine.

Having a transition to bedtime helped a lot with my sleep quality

I was initially skeptical about the effectiveness of taking a hot bath before bed. The whole electronics curfew thing was tough also, since I like to catch up on news and keep up with life admin in the evenings — not to mention that I want to read messages from family and friends on the other side of the world!

But adopting both rituals did wonders for my sleep. When I wasn't doing this routine, on a good day, I would fall asleep within half an hour. Sometimes, if I was feeling stressed, it could take a full hour.

With Huffington's evening ritual, I averaged 10 to 15 minutes before I was in a deep snooze. I slept like a baby that week! I never once jolted awake in the middle of the night.

However, the electronic curfew can be restrictive

One day I missed out on plans that my friends had made for that night because I didn't check social media. Also, Facebook is how I communicate with my family back in New Zealand, and with the time difference, the best time for me to talk to them is often just before my bedtime in New York.

Also, I really missed devouring longform articles in bed before I sleep.

I think in the future I would try to adopt this curfew whenever possible, but not be so restrictive. I just have to learn to stop myself from going down an Instagram rabbit hole, which I often did prior to this experiment.