Journalist and entrepreneur Arianna Huffington says we are living in a "delusion" in relation to our health and sleep.

The founder of the Huffington Post has written a new book, "The Sleep Revolution", and says sleep deprivation is "the new smoking".

The book closely examines the negative effects of not getting enough sleep.

"We have been living our lives under the collective delusion that if we short-change sleep we are going to be more productive...and all the modern sciences makes it absolutely unequivocal that this is not the case", she told the Pat Kenny Show.

She says the majority of us need seven to nine hours sleep a night - and that she had a painful wake up call about her sleeping habits.

"I collapsed from sleep deprivation and broke my cheek bone on the way down - and that's what started me looking at my life - and realising that I and millions of people are are living under this delusion".

"Look at our view of smoking, we really used to think smoking was not a problem...Sleep deprivation is the new smoking".

"We now literally have executives collapsing on their treadmill because we've convinced everybody that exercise and nutrition are important - but we've forgotten the third leg of the stool, which is sleep".

"How did we get there? It dates back to the first industrial revolution, and the illusion that we can treat human beings like machines".

Donald Trump "a clear and present danger"

She explains how it all started: "We decided to start with 50 colleges where we brought sleep fairs with products to make it easier to get enough sleep, and good sleep".

But she warns: "One of the problems with teenagers especially, but also with all of us, is our addiction to technology".

"It's harder and harder for teenagers to disconnect from their devices, which are almost like an extension of themselves. Its part of a disconnection - drawing a line between the day and the night".

On the presumptive Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump, Ms Huffington says: "We are covering him as a clear and present danger, we covered him in the entertainment section for as long as we could".

"He also displays all the symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation - he proudly says that he only sleeps four to four and a half hours, that he sleeps with his phone, that he tweets in the middle of the night".

"He cannot process even simple information, all these outbursts of anger, mood instability...all these, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, are symptoms of somebody who is running on empty".