Why is sleep important? Is it important for success?
The sleeping hours of successful people are claimed to contribute to their success.
You often read about successful people claiming that they got little or no sleep on their road to success. For most of them, that is not true.
They may be simply trying to get you to stay up all night, get totally exhausted and completely unable to compete with them!
Sure, that is highly unlikely, but why should successful people tell you their secrets? They don’t!
The only genuine secret revealed to you will be the words of the Dalai Lama: Sleep is the best meditation. I take that as meaning that those who sleep best not only get the best rest, but can also think best on the issues facing them.
What are the Sleeping Hours of Successful People?
Most won’t reveal that and many will be untruthful. But think about it! How do you feel when you wake up next morning with little sleep? Tired? Irritable? Probably both of these.
Fresh and ready to be successful? Definitely not!
How do you feel when you sleep, well without interruption and for a good length of time? The so-called average of 8 hours for example. Normally refreshed! Unless you are sleeping off a good time with friends – then you may not feel so refreshed.
The reason for that is another topic! It’s connected with the poisons in your body – maybe sleep uses some of its time to remove these: the poisons you eat, drink or breathe in, in everyday life.
Sleeping Habits of Famous People
Richard Branson says: “Sleep is incredibly valuable for a busy life, and I try to get it whenever and wherever I can.”
Richard Branson tries to wake up at 5 am whenever he can. He states that this gives him to time check his emails and messages and get ready for a busy day ahead. But – he sleeps when he can, particularly when flying.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella days he sleeps 8 hours each night and wakes at 7 am.
Bill Gate sleeps midnight – 7 am (he also says he reads an hour every night before sleeping).
Those who claim successful people sleep very little are either unsuccessful or insomniacs! Those who are most successful get as much sleep as they can.
In this infographic, you can see the sleep routines of 50 successful people from business, politics, the arts and sports.
Looking at the data, it’s interesting to see almost all of our business and politics faces are early rises – all waking up at or before 7AM, with the exception of Mark Zuckerberg who rises at 8AM.
In fact, some big names even wake up before sunrise to make sure they are making the most out of their mornings, including Michelle Obama (4:30AM), Tim Cook (4:30AM), Richard Branson (5AM), Jeff Bezos (5AM) & Sheryl Sandberg (5AM).
What Your Sleeping Habits Should Be
What are the sleeping hours of successful people, or a better question, what are the sleeping habits of successful people?
Let’s have a look at what your sleeping habits should be if you want to be successful.
1. Avoid Caffeine.
Never drink a coffee or tea just before bedtime – unless decaffeinated. Caffeine is a stimulant, and rather than soothing you, it energizes you! You may as well have a Red Bull!
2. Avoid Alcohol.
Do it for two reasons.
You tend to wake up more often with alcohol in your system, and also have a more restless sleep. Added to that, you often wake up with a sore head or feeling unrefreshed, and certainly not able to beat the rest of the business world.
3. Sleep Regular Hours.
Most successful people appear to go to bed and get out of bed at the same time every day. They get into a sleeping routine that suits them personally.
For some it is 12 – 7, for others it is 11 – 7 and others wake at 5 each day.
In addition to the examples given earlier, Elon Musk says he sleeps 1 -7, but whatever it is they all seem to sleep go to bed and rise at specific times.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, claims to sleep just 3-4 hours each day. No wonder he always appears grumpy!
4. Rise Early.
As you can see, all but one tends to rise between 5 am and 7 am.
If you want to be successful at what you do, and do not have set working hours, then set yourself a bedtime so that you can get up early in the morning. This gives you more time during the working day while you are fresh.
Stick to sleeping and waking at these times. Your body clock will adapt to it and you will feel more refreshed for it.
5. Make a List.
If you have important things to do the next day, then make a list of them and tape it to your nightstand or bedside table. You will then know your goals as soon as you awake. If nothing else, it will get you out of bed to get you started working on them.
Why is Sleep Important?
Sleep is important to everybody. It is during sleep that your brain can relax – and some believe assimilate what you have learned during the day. The trouble with this is that investigation is still going on as to the real purpose of sleep.
It certainly refreshes the function of the brain – but what else, and how does it do this. What are dreams and what is the purpose of dreams? Nobody really knows in spite of all that has been written on the subject.
How much sleep do we need? Again, nobody knows.
Some need more than others. Donald Trump says he sleeps only 4-5 hours a night. Some experts believe this is possible, although it is nowhere near normal. Some sleep 15 hours every night – Mariah Carey claims to be one such example.
Einstein slept 10 hours every day.
Perhaps the amount you sleep is regulated by your mental activity – or the quality of it. Nobody really knows although research on this subject is being carried out in many countries worldwide. The answer is really irrelevant – it doesn’t matter.
Sleep is essential to everyone.
The sleeping hours of successful people give us no answer other than they tend to sleep during the same times every night. The regularity of their sleeping practices seems to mean more than the hours they sleep,
What this shows is that you cannot be successful by copying the sleeping hours of successful people.
‘Sleeping hours’ need not be a number, but the period of time during which most successful people are asleep. So, as previously stated, it may be that sleeping between the same hours each night is what is important.
About The Author
This is a guest post by Richard from Choose Best Mattress.