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)
Allison Brager, Ph. D, performance engineer for Momentous. Generally, high achievers tend to sleep less, Brager tells CNET. "If you look at US presidents, successful CEOs and military leaders, many report sleeping little but feeling fine and don't need stimulants to stay awake," she says.
Tips for better sleep
But they also have more of something else – sleep. Compared to those living near or below the poverty level, the rich sleep more too, according to a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Successful entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett, prioritise rest and swear by seven to eight hours of peaceful sleep. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, reportedly wakes up at five every morning, while Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, rises at 5:45 am.
Time may be the most essential commodity you need in becoming successful. Many successful executives admit that they can get by on less sleep and achieve more. While the average person should need between 6-8 hours, successful people think that by sleeping less they can create more hours for themselves to work more.
The thing the job is not known for, however, is a good night's sleep. With various board meetings and no shortage of pressure, rest can be hard to find. CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk get under six hours of sleep each night.
Albert Einstein, a household name that has inspired many a crazy hair day and who is most famous for his theory of General Relativity, was a huge fan of catching some Z's. He would sleep an average of 10 hours a night as well as taking daytime naps.
Elon Musk says he's upped his sleep to 6 hours per night—and that his old routine hurt his brain. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, speaks with CNBC on May 16th, 2023. Elon Musk says his days of trying to sleep less and work more are over — at least, relatively speaking.
Bill Gates' sleep schedule
Today, Gates regularly gets at least seven hours of sleep per night.
President Obama reportedly slept around 5 hours a night, preferring to hit the sack well past midnight and wake at 7 A.M. Sleep patterns like this are mostly dictated by our circadian rhythms, but these rhythms can be flexible depending on our personal schedules.
Oprah Winfrey
The American talk-show host, actress and billionaire says she usually gets to bed by 10pm for a full eight hours of sleep.
The talk show host, author and philanthropist reportedly gets eight hours of sleep between the hours of 10pm and 6am, with her last and first thoughts of the day centred upon gratitude. In the morning, rather than check her phone, Winfrey brushes her teeth and cares for her dogs before heading to her home gym.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Running one of the world's largest companies doesn't stop Jeff Bezos from getting his eight hours of sleep. While the Amazon founder says sometimes getting eight hours is impossible, he's very focused on it.
Inventor Nikola Tesla never slept for more than two hours a day. Tesla got more out of the day with his limited sleep schedule. Like Da Vinci, Telsa also followed the Uberman sleep cycle and claimed to never sleep for more than two hours a day and reportedly once worked for 84 hours in a lab without any rest or sleep.
Leonardo da Vinci, who functioned on two hours of sleep a day while painting the Mona Lisa, followed a form of polyphasic sleep schedule called the Uberman sleep cycle, which involves 20-minute naps every four hours.
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.
Napoleon ate his meals quickly and in silence – a meal rarely lasted longer than twenty minutes. His favourite meal was roast chicken with fried potatoes and onions. Napoleon was a workaholic who would sleep for only three or four hours a night.
But many high-profile and highly successful entrepreneurs and CEOs do rise at the crack of dawn — or earlier — to get a head start on their busy schedules. The majority of successful business leaders get up no later than 6 a.m., according to a new survey of CEOs from Inc.
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)
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly only sleeps from 10:00 pm to 3:45 am each day.