There's gonna be a lot of tears tomorrow morning. Tears of joy. Tears of despair. But most likely there'll be bucket loads of tantrum tears. These will be from those who decided to stay up all night and watch the General Election result. Unless you're a jobbing journalist or a politician there'll be little reward for geeking out in front of the TV with your eyeballs glued to a smartphone until 6am. Instead, the reward will be rattiness, lack of focus, and dreadful decision making.
At The Huffington Post UK we've made a big deal of raising the importance of remembering to unplug from digital media, recharge the mind and sleep. And there's a good reason - it's not hipster hocus-pocus. Our coverage, which comes under the banner The Third Metric, shows there's bags of scientific evidence that all of these life choices help with an issue that's a stake this Friday morning - good quality decision making.
This week Britons will vote in their millions to entrust a few hundred people with the future of the country. We trust them to make the right decisions without even knowing how they reach them. We are trusting our leaders to make massively important decisions on no sleep.
When I spoke to Arianna earlier about the UK elections she told me: "Wherever we look in the UK and around the world, we see smart leaders in politics, but also in business and in media, making terrible decisions.
"What they're lacking is not IQ, but wisdom. Which is no surprise. It has never been harder to tap into our inner wisdom, because in order to do so, we have to get enough sleep, disconnect from our omnipresent devices and reconnect with ourselves."
This week I've been through hundreds of HuffPost UK articles to pick out what I think will be the best at explaining how to survive the election night Third Metric-style. It's something I'd encourage everyone to read, especially the party leaders. They're going to need it. Here's my list of the 16 best:
- Sleep Your Way to the Top Intelligently
- 6 Nap Hacks You Need In Your Life To Make The Most Of Sleepy Time
- David Gelles Busts Myths Around Meditation And Business: 'There's Nothing Religious About It'
- The Stress Cure: As Stress Levels Reach New Heights, New Book Aims To Find A Solution
- 10 Lifestyle Choices That Mean We Get A Bad Night's Sleep
- 12 Signs You're 'Drowning In Data' And Experiencing A Digital Overload
- Sleep Deprivation Caused By Too Many Screens
- Bad News For Night Owls - Sleep Deprivation Really Does Ruin Your Health
- 5 Easy Digital Detox Resolutions That Will Make Life Instantly Less Stressful
- Five Tips to Boost Your Mood and Productivity
- Wellbeing Should Be A Top Priority Says Cross-Party Parliamentary Group
- Time to Cut Our Leaders Some Slack
- This Is What Social Media Does To Your Brain (Warning: It's Not Pretty)
- The Reason Why You Aren't Functioning at Your Peak
- These Things Are Killing Our Sense Of Wonder But Here's How You Can Fix Them
- A Napping Guide For Brits Who Snooze At Work