As Sunday's Golden Globes party wore on, people kept asking how much longer I planned to stay, and whether I was going to be able to get my 8 hours of sleep. I felt like I was a kid on a school night -- with dozens of elegantly dressed baby sitters.

Just one of the startling things I've learned over the last two weeks of the Sleep Challenge is that apparently, when it comes to good health, what you do in the hour right before you go to bed really matters.

So why does rest get so little respect? Why do people resist getting enough sleep? Is it because a Calvinist culture thinks rest is laziness? Or is it that we don't really know what rest does?

Consider insomnia as a symptom of a deeper problem. The answer is not sleep medication, or psychotropic medication, as the medications themselves are toxic to the organs, have side-effects, are often addictive.

Our Western rational culture dismissed the world of symbols as superstition, though recently as we hunger for meaning in our surface lives we have begun to revalue these archetypal images.

Here's a question for all of you: What are you doing less of to make more time for sleep?

I've even tried all the crazy stuff, like feet facing only SXSW, and head elevated on a pillow filled with husks of grain grown on verdant hillsides by gentle people singing lullabies.

What goes on in our lives during the day can profoundly effect the quality of our sleep at night. Here are some areas of life you may want to inquire in to.

I believe what sees when we have a near death experience and leave our bodies is the same force which creates our dreams.

As of this morning, we've emerged victorious from what some experts consider the biggest test of American women's sleep habits: that 48-hour health menace known as the weekend.

When it comes to living your best life, achieving all your goals, feeling and looking great, sleep is something not to be missed. Here's a yoga routine you can do in your bed to wind down before sleep.

Low explained that it was hard for him to believe that sleep was just a rest state because when you look at the brain, it appears that it goes through fundamental changes during sleep, more than just upkeep.

All of a sudden, there I was in the pitch-black, mentally scrolling through my to-do list. I did end up eventually falling back asleep, but when I went for a run this morning, I accidentally locked myself out of my own house.

Let me offer additional dramatic incentives for getting better rest: you'll live longer, you'll be thinner and you'll have better sex!

After finally reaching my goal of getting eight hours of sleep a night, I was surprised to discover that the exercise-sleep connection is a two-way street: getting enough sleep also helps you exercise better. READ MORE Sleep Challenge 2010: I Fall Off the Wagon (with a Push from Zorba the Greek) WATCH: Arianna and Cindi Leive Explain Sleep Challenge 2010 to Joy Behar HuffPost Turns Over the Top of Every Section to All the Ways We Can Help in Haiti Tucker Carlson Launches "The Right's Answer to HuffPost" - Why I Wish Him Nothing But the Best WATCH: Arianna Talks Geithner and Midterm Elections with Dylan Ratigan WATCH: Arianna on How Pat Robertson Gives Religion a Bad Name

Besides eating whole foods and moving your body, getting enough sleep is the most important thing you can do for your health. Sleep deprivation makes you fat and leads to depression, diabetes and pain.

With little kids, so many small things seem like life-and-death decisions. And thanks to sleep deprivation, your fight-and-flight brain sometimes seems to be all that's operating.

Although people do not commonly talk about snoring or sleep apnea, it is so common today that it exists in epidemic proportions. Approximately 20 million Americans suffer from it.

I proposed "Get more sleep" as the very first resolution of the 2010 Happiness Challenge. Researchers argue that lack of sleep has broad health consequences, but it also interferes with happiness.

But even with such a perfect stage set for sleep can one shut down their brain after a day of anxiety, stress and troubles? It's not easy no matter how hard we try.

The first time I slept for five hours straight, I took notice. And went back to sleep for two more. My sleep patterns changed, slowly but surely, after the first couple of months of meditation.

You and you alone can be the judge of how much sleep you need. You and you alone can figure out the ways to get that sleep. Listen to your body, become a careful observer of your sleep learn how your sleep reacts.

Your home's furnishings and layout can greatly affect your sleep and energy, says Jayme Barrett, author of Feng Shui Your Life. ...

I firmly believe that one of the major reasons I'm thriving in my late 60s is that I am adamant about getting sufficient sleep.

If you asked me what the hardest physical challenge has been in my life, my answer wouldn't be the challenges of living with type one insulin dependent diabetes. Instead it has been chronic insomnia.