Getting Sleep in Anxious Times

Welcome to my Weekly Thoughts Newsletter, where you'll find my take on the week's news stories, my favorite pieces on how we can thrive even in our stressful world, and some fun and inspiring extras.

Today's read is ~5 minutes.

@thrive / Instagram

Helping People Get Some Sleep in Anxious Times

In ordinary times, sleep is essential to every aspect of a person’s well-being. In extraordinary times of uncertainty, anxiety and stress, getting the sleep we need is more important than ever. Sleep is the foundation of both a strong immune system and psychological resilience — the very things we need to navigate this pandemic. 

And yet with the COVID-19 crisis, a good night’s sleep has never been harder to come by. Increased stress, the “loss of daytime structure,” and too much screen time are cutting into sleep, writes Lisa Medalie, a behavioral sleep medicine specialist at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Google searches for insomnia hit a record high in early April. And many people are seeing an uptick in nightmares, brought on by stress and anxiety. 

At the same time, growing data is showing that Americans in underserved communities are disproportionately affected by the virus. Numerous studies show that socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are more likely to experience sleep patterns associated with adverse health outcomes. The so-called sleep gap and disproportionate medical and economic impacts of the coronavirus illustrate the larger inequalities that are plaguing our society. 

This is why Audible and Thrive Global have come together to launch this past week a collection of free sleep solutions designed to help people rest during this difficult time. 

Among these voices are Sean “Diddy” Combs, Nick Jonas, Gabby Bernstein and many others. Last year, Diddy asked me to be his sleep coach. Well, the teacher has now become the student. I’ve been falling asleep to his guided sleep meditation every night lately. And other than when we recorded it, I have literally never heard the end of it because I always fall asleep halfway through! And if you don’t believe me, read what Amanda Arnold writes in New York Magazine: “Diddy’s Guided Meditation Is… the Best Thing I’ve Ever Heard.”

Read More on Thrive: Helping People Get Some Sleep in Anxious Times Will Help Underserved Communities, Too

What Lies Beneath

From “social distancing” to “flatten the curve,” many phrases have now become part of our collective vocabulary. One of them is “underlying conditions,” which has long been part of the conversation around health care and insurance. Now, however, it has become central to our understanding of the current crisis, since studies have shown that people with chronic health conditions including diabetes, obesity and hypertension are more likely to become ill and die. Indeed, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association of thousands of hospitalized coronavirus patients in New York City provides staggering data making the connection: nearly all patients had at least one chronic condition and 88% had at least two. Only 6% had no chronic health conditions.

Body Politic

And George Packer in The Atlantic shows how the coronavirus has also exposed underlying conditions in the very infrastructure of our country. “When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly,” he writes. “Chronic ills — a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public — had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms. It took the scale and intimacy of a pandemic to expose their severity — to shock Americans with the recognition that we are in the high-risk category.” Just as we are learning how essential it is to strengthen our individual physical immunity and mental resilience, Packer’s article is a reminder that our leaders — including those in business — must do the same at the institutional level, going upstream to address problems before a crisis hits.

H.R. 2.0

Donna Morris, Walmart's Chief People Officer, and me

One of the many trends that the coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated is the central role H.R. leaders are playing in their organizations. “I think it’s our opportunity to rearchitect what the future looks like,” Donna Morris, Walmart’s Chief People Officer — responsible for 2.2 million associates (as Walmart calls its employees) — said on LinkedIn. “The H.R. function has an incredible opportunity for impact. There’s no time like the present for all of us to collectively support our organization’s purpose and the purpose of the people that don’t just work for us but broadly are in the communities in which we live.” This week, I joined Donna for a conversation around the role daily habits can play in building our physical immunity and mental resilience and for a discussion of the strategic partnership that Walmart has launched with Thrive offering our behavior change app, webinars, coaching and storytelling to associates in Walmart’s stores, distribution centers, and those working from home.

CNBC highlighted another key focus for CHROs: employee mental health. “These chief people officers are the ones having daily, if not hourly, conversations with the CEO and other senior leaders on how best to navigate a situation that no one possibly could have fathomed,” Susan Caminiti wrote. “They’re the ones helping to keep anxiety-ridden employees informed about what’s happening with the company and up to date on the resources — financial and medical — that can help them stay calm and productive.” Ellyn Shook, CHRO at Accenture and a key Thrive partner in the rollout of our mental health experience Thriving Mind, told CNBC how during this challenging time she has accepted that taking care of herself is not self indulgent but that in fact it helps her be much better able to take care of others. It’s why she makes time every day at 6 p.m. to walk several miles, reflect and recharge.

Owning Our Health

Van Jones is a tireless and formidable opponent of systemic injustice. And in a powerful and deeply personal new piece, he argues that as COVID-19 takes a disproportionate toll on black communities across America, African Americans must take more responsibility for their own health — especially immune health, since diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma and obesity make people much more vulnerable to the virus. Often, he says, those who focus on personal responsibility are accused of blaming the victim or ignoring systemic racism. But as he writes, “we are not faced with an either/or choice. One can insist upon structural reforms, while also embracing positive personal lifestyle changes. I certainly intend to do both, going forward. After all, any meaningful improvement in black wellness will require major change — from both institutions AND individuals.” Jones, who struggles with high cholesterol, pre-diabetes and hypertension, challenges himself and others to find one small way to take action today to better protect our own health — from getting a little more sleep or eating healthier to meditating or practicing gratitude. “I am going to do a better job of protecting my own health and wellness,” he vows. “I will do so, not instead of fighting for social justice but so I can keep breathing and thriving long enough to win the battle.” 

Read More on Thrive: Blacks Must “Own Our Health”

Pregnancy in the Time of COVID-19

What are the implications of COVID-19 for pregnant women and their babies? In an important piece on Thrive, Eleni Jaswa, an OB/GYN and fertility specialist who is also six months pregnant with her child, explains why not having the answer — let alone any data — has inspired her to launch a study to research COVID-19's impact on pregnancy: “With my first baby on the way, the tragedies of pregnant women laboring alone due to hospital restrictions on visitors, of pregnant women intubated on ventilators, of new moms immediately separated from their newborns at birth while being ruled out for COVID-19 infection, cut extra deep.” Jaswa also shares the three ways she’s protecting her physical and mental well-being during this time, including spending time in nature. As she writes, “nature doesn’t seem to notice — this gives me calm and perspective.”

Read More on Thrive: Pregnancy During the Coronavirus Is Stressful. Here’s How to Cope.

Before You Go

Highbrow Instagram Indulgence of the Week

Sir Patrick Stewart reading a different Shakespeare sonnet every day. Enough said. Also, this week — April 23rd specifically — marked the day Shakespeare was born and died — 52 years apart. But he lives on in our daily language. Here are a few commonly used phrases that all come from his plays: If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ‘It's Greek to me,’ you are quoting Shakespeare. If you have been tongue-tied, hoodwinked or in a pickle, slept not one wink, laughed yourself into stitches, you are quoting Shakespeare. If you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then you are quoting Shakespeare.

Neologism of the Week (new words, terms or phrases that define our time) 

Sisu, meaning resilience in Finnish. As Justyn Barnes, author of Sisu: Find Your Resilience the Finnish Way, says, “in the 1500s, which is the first time the word was used, it was tied to the idea of being gutsy. Over time, it’s become more of a mindset; having a resilient mindset.” It’s an empowering concept of never giving up — all the more important during a time of uncertainty when so much is outside our control.

Tweet of the Week

@BrooklynSpoke / Twitter

A welcome reminder that moving forward together in our new normal is about a lot more than just the economy.

Updates on #FirstRespondersFirst

Deeply grateful to all who have contributed to the #FirstRespondersFirst campaign, which Thrive Global launched in partnership with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and CAA to provide essential resources — protective equipment, child care, accommodations, food and mental health support — for the healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic. So far almost $6 million has been raised to help those who are putting themselves at risk to help us.

This week we launched our partnership with IHG Hotels & Resorts to provide free accommodation at hotels across the United States so frontline COVID-19 first responders can rest and recharge near the medical facilities where they work. And our commitment to providing free child care for first responders continues with the addition of four new Bright Horizons child care hubs in partnership with Cisco, in Milpitas, California; Cary, North Carolina; Dallas, Texas; and Birmingham, Alabama. #FirstRespondersFirst also made a donation this week to Newark Working Kitchens to provide meals to frontline healthcare workers in Newark, New Jersey.

And we’re so grateful yet again to Shonda Rhimes for bringing the Shondaland family together to support first responders in the battle against COVID-19.

@shondaland / Instagram

Stay healthy, stay safe,