WATERVILLE — Arianna Huffington told graduating seniors at Colby College Sunday that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is an example of what lack of sleep can do and urged graduates to take time to recharge.

Huffington, co-founder, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, said she knows firsthand the devastating effects of lack of sleep — she has collapsed because of working 18-hour days — and told the nearly 500 graduates, their families, friends and faculty that Trump shows all the signs of not enough sleep.

“He brags about how little sleep he gets and that he always sleeps with his phone beside him,” Huffington said in her commencement address at Colby’s 195th Commencement on Sunday.

What affect does that have? Huffington asked. For starters, the inability to process even basic information, she said to laughter and applause from the gathering on a sunny Miller Library lawn.

“Mood swings, fogged memories, incomprehension of a comprehensible problem and the occasional re-tweeting of Mussolini,” she said. “These are all symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation, according to the American Academy of Sleep, except the re-tweeting Mussolini part — that’s just pure Donald Trump.”

Huffington stressed the need for seven to nine hours of sleep per night. She told graduates to turn off their mobile devices once in a while as they enter the world after college to recharge and not just succeed in the world, but to change it.

She said the concepts of “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” and other “early bird” cliches do not show colleagues how successful you are; it shows them you don’t care enough about yourself to really be a winner. Sleep, she said, it’s a revolution.

“The lack of sleep is the cognitive equivalent of coming to work drunk,” Huffington said. “Sleep is the ultimate performance enhancing drug and burnout is not essential to success.”

President David A. Greene presented Bachelor of Arts degrees to approximately 500 seniors during Sunday’s commencement. Members of the Class of 2016 came to Colby from 31 states and are citizens of 31 countries, according to a preview of graduation on the college’s website. Approximately two-thirds of the class studied abroad, traveling to more than 40 countries.

As president and editor-in-chief at the Huffington Post Media Group, Huffington has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people and Forbes magazine’s list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. She serves on the boards of several nonprofits including the Center for Public Integrity, the Committee to Protect Journalists and A Place Called Home, which helps at-risk children in South Central Los Angeles.

In May 2005 she launched the Huffington Post, a news and blog site that has become a popular media outlet on the Internet.

Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama and an important part of the administration’s legislative strategy, delivered remarks to Colby seniors at baccalaureate on Saturday.

“Sunshine is out for you today,” Melisa J. Glenn, associate professor of psychology, said to the gathering following the processional led by The Portland Brass, graduates all in black caps and gowns.

In his welcome address Sunday to graduates and their friends and family, Greene said love, guidance and the occasional push got graduates to where they were Sunday, and now is the time to put it all in motion.

“I wish for you lives filled with laughter and joy,” he said.

Following senior class speaker Brendan Leonard’s animated address to his classmates, the Condon Medal Award was given to Bonnie Maldonado.

On the lawns after commencement, graduates mingled with friends and family amid the blossoming apple trees that dot the campus.

In front of one of those trees, Kyle Rainey, of Otisfield, posed with his mother, Pamela Cummings, for pictures. Rainey said he was a government major and will attend law school this fall at Northeastern University in Boston.

“I am just beyond proud,” his mother said. “I can’t find words. I cry when I try to explain how proud I am.”

Rainey said the Colby community allowed him to focus on the important things, and he will take that with him when he leaves.

“I loved it here. It was something bigger, greater, more tight-knit than I ever expected,” he said. “Applying to graduate school was so easy because I just knew so many professors and they knew me, and I could talk to them and ask for recommendations and help with the process.”

Standing in line for the post-commencement luncheon with his family, graduate Ryan Ruiz said Colby and Waterville were a long way from his home in the inner city of Hyde Park, Boston. Ruiz, a sociology major, said he flourished in his Colby experience.

“It helped me to become a well rounded person,” he said. “I played sports. I got involved with the community. I think that’s one of the special things about this place, is it doesn’t focus on one aspect of you as a person, but as you as a whole.”

He said he and his football teammates performed group activities including going to local schools in the Waterville area giving talks about life and what it means to achieve success.

Loaded down with a yellow rose, a brownie and fresh strawberries, graduate Sonja Sepkowitz, who still lives in the Brooklyn, New York, home she grew up in, said Waterville was an interesting experience for her.

“When I was looking for schools, I wanted something that was not near a city because I’ve grown up there all my life,” the psychology major said. “Waterville was a little hard to get used to, but I loved it. There’s only one main street with like a few restaurants, so for somebody like me it was a different experience, but I like it because it was so different.”

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

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