Did you know that insomnia is more common for those who have a high IQ. Intelligent people have a harder time switching off their brain. So, maybe you are just too clever to snooze! Don't panic, high IQ or not, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia can help you.
Most Geniuses Perfected the Power Nap
Hence, they'd reduce the time they rest at night in order to have more functional, waking hours. Instead, they'd take advantage of the so-called “power nap”. Both Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison were famous advocates of this principle.
Albert Einstein is said to have slept 10 hours per night, plus regular daytime naps. Other great achievers, inventors, and thinkers – such as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sir Isaac Newton – are said to have slept between two and four hours per day.
Some evidence suggests that high IQ is associated with later sleep patterns. However, it is unclear whether the relationship between IQ and later sleep is due to biological or social effects, such as the timing of working hours.
Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla never slept for more than 2 hours a day. Much like Da Vinci, Tesla followed the Uberman Sleep Cycle, and claimed to have never slept more than 2 hours a day. He once reportedly worked for 84 hours straight in a lab without any rest.
Bill Gates
Now, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder gets at least seven hours of shut-eye, and wrote that all people need that much, “even if you've convinced yourself otherwise.”
Elon Musk says he is "fairly nocturnal" and only sleeps about 6 hours a day. He told The Full Send podcast he usually goes to bed about 3 a.m. and gets up around 9 a.m. The Tesla CEO says he has a "bad habit" of immediately checking his phone after waking up.
Studies show that night owls and those who wake up later actually are smarter and more creative than their early rising counterparts. They also have higher IQs according to The Independent. Unfortunately, night owls have slightly lower academic scores than early risers (by about 8%).
He says it's because your brain is so tired, it has to focus. In other words, "there isn't enough left-over brainpower to afford losing concentration."
The insomniacs showed enhanced brain activity compared to good sleepers. In fact, those with insomnia showed more plasticity in picking up the new task. Over the past few decades, there's a growing body of research on the relationship between sleep patterns and intelligence.
Less sleep lowers IQ scores and grades
According to Coren, scores on intelligence tests decline cumulatively on each successive day that you sleep less than you normally sleep. The daily decline is approximately one IQ point for the first hour of sleep loss, two for the next, and four for the next.
But the majority manage to get at least 6 hours, as you can see in the list below detailing the sleep habits of 10 highly successful people: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX: 6 hours (1am — 7am) Tim Cook, CEO of Apple: 7 hours (9:30pm — 4:30am) Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft: 7 hours (12am — 7am)
For da Vinci's possible adoption of this practice, Claudio Stampi writes in his 1992 book, "Why We Nap": "One of his secrets, or so it has been claimed, was a unique sleep formula: he would sleep 15 minutes out of every four hours, for a daily total of only 1.5 hours of sleep.
Mark Zuckerberg's sleep schedule
The CEO believes in having a healthy sleep schedule. He wakes up at 8 am and goes to bed at around 11-12 pm at the night. He tries to take quality sleep of at least 7-8 hours every day. But depending on his frequent travel trips and work hours may vary.
Sometimes life calls and we don't get enough sleep. But five hours of sleep out of a 24-hour day isn't enough, especially in the long term. According to a 2018 study of more than 10,000 people, the body's ability to function declines if sleep isn't in the seven- to eight-hour range.
This is because our brain is constantly forming new connections while we are awake. The longer we are awake, the more active our minds become. Scientists believe that this is partly why sleep deprivation has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression. However, there are negative outcomes of this, too.
So why do people think they are able to function optimally on 6 hours of regular sleep? This is because of a natural human phenomenon known as 'renorming'. Renorming means that we are only able to compare how we feel today to how we felt yesterday or the day before.
The average person goes to bed at 11:41pm and wakes up at 7:20am, but according to experts who studied the sleep habits of 20,000 Americans, they found people who are most intelligent stay up later. So, what time? According to the report, the smartest peeps go to bed at 12:29am and wake up at 7:52am.
On average, he gets between four and five hours of sleep per night. Want to know how he manages? Keep reading to find out more about Donald Trump's sleep schedule.
Jeff Bezos has revealed his optimal sleep time in order to be the best he can at his job. The Amazon mogul's success is seen as the ultimate goal for entrepreneurs. "I get eight hours of sleep a night.
The benefits of getting enough sleep are widely known, but do successful (and busy) people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Barack Obama actually squeeze in the recommended eight hours? Some successful people swear by a strict sleep regimen and get to bed early. Others tend to stay up until well past midnight.
Other weird records
Previously, Peter Tripp held the first record at 201 hours and suffered from hallucinations for several days after. Between Peter and Randy, Honolulu DJ Tom Rounds made it to 260 hours. Randy tapped out at 264 hours, and slept for 14 hours straight after.
Many successful people wake up early so that they are able to use undisturbed time to do stuff for themselves. Waking up early is great for getting organized, strategic thinking, and planning. Additionally, getting to the office first means fewer distractions from colleagues.