We all love to sleep. The ultimate relaxation for the body and the only time when we can dream without being fully conscious. Dreams in which we can go as high as possible and maybe achieve whatever we spend our whole daytime thinking about.
But if we really want to make those dreams a part of our reality, we have to cut up on many of our luxuries, a fulfilling sleep being one of them. Spelling out the irony-filled statement: You have to lose some dreams, to achieve the others.
This might be a little too harsh, but it is the reality. The competition in the world is so fierce that you have to work a hundred times harder and commit to it, if you really want to reach somewhere, just like some of these highly successful people. They took out time from wherever possible to work on their dreams, and sleep was one of it.
They all had their separate sacrifices when it came to cutting down on sleep. However, a pattern can be spotted in the sleep hours of these magnificent leaders. We have listed out some of the sleeping patterns of highly successful persons.
1. Hours of sleep
We generally believe 8 hours of sleep is the minimum of what a person should consume on a daily basis to have a healthy life. But the statistics that we have here portray a different story. 86% of highly successful people sleep somewhere between the hour count of six to eight, six being the most preferred. We all are fed with countless advice that 8 hours is a minimum, but these leaders are doing just fine with an amount of fewer than 8 hours. Around forty-percent from the above 86 being the six-hour-sleepers.
2. Time to Bed
Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. A significant majority of successful people have a tendency to prefer the time window of 9:30 – 11:00 p.m. as their primary sleeping time. To specify the number, according to Forbes.com, the percentage is somewhat around 64. A tiny percentage of successful people recommend a time-slot after 11 p.m., but as we say in life, there are always exceptions. Our team of sleep scientists has pointed out the 9:30–11 p.m. window to be the best timings for a sound sleep.
3. Waking up time
Life is too short. If you want more out of it, wake up early. We all have been nagged about a hundred times for waking up early. We have been told all sorts of stuff like it is good for the body, It’s the most peaceful part of the day, and it calms the mind, it is the most productive hours of the whole day. Well, these all reasons are a hundred percent correct, and the proof of the same is reflected in the sleep schedules of some of the highly successful people. Most of the leaders prefer to wake up anywhere between 4 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Waking up with sunshine and breathing in the fresh air. There’s nothing better than that.
Sleep hours of 10 majorly successful leaders:
Now let’s move on to the section where we list the sleep schedules of the ten highly successful leaders who hustle day in and day out, lift the covers of the virtuality of their dreams and show them the face of reality.
- Jack Dorsey – Co-founder of Twitter, is known to sleep at 10:30 and wake up around 5. So somewhat around six and a half hours of sleep.
- Jeff Bezos – Founder and Ceo of the e-commerce giant Amazon, sleeps from 11 p.m. to 6 p.m., Clocking 7 hours of sleep a day.
- Indra Nooyi– Pepsi co’s ex-chairman and one of the world’s 100 most powerful women, sleeps only four hours a day. She sleeps somewhere around 12 and wakes up at 4. 15 minutes give or take.
- Richard Branson – Founder of the Virgin group, claims to sleep 5 hours. The preferable window is 12 to 5 a.m.
- Thomas Edison – The American Inventor was known to have 5 sleeping hours per day dedicated from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
- Neil Patel – The most followed digital marketing around the globe and the founder of ubersuggests and crazy egg, sleeps for about 8 hours. 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
- Elon Musk – Tesla, Paypal, and SpaceX sleep at 1 a.m. and wake up at 7 a.m.
- Tim Armstrong – Chairman and CEO of AOL sleep 6 hours a day, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
- Tim Cook – CEO of Apple inc. sleeps from 9:30 to 4:30
- Barack Obama – Former President of the United States, sleeps 6 hours from (1 a.m. – 7 p.m.)
Here are some tips to help you follow your strict sleep schedule with maximum comfort:
1. No snacking before 3 hours of bedtime: Our body works on digesting the food that we ate, and that can certainly hurt the winding down process. Also, overeating at night can disturb the whole schedule and harm our overall health.
2. Take a shower before going to bed: Taking a bath would help you fall asleep quickly. The overall body temperature lowers, making it easier for you to doze off.
3. Have an optimal sleeping environment: A dark, cold room with the drapes shut off and quiet ambiance helps you sleep early without any hassle. The more comfortable you are, the better and sooner you will sleep. This will help you to follow your sleep routine better.
4. Meditation: Clearing your head before sleeping can help you sleep better as it will keep all the overthinking away.
Read: How important is a good mattress to your sleep
Final Word:
Sleep and success have a great relationship. It’s like the phrase that has been called many a time but vastly ignored by people,” Health is Wealth.” Successful people obey the needs of their bodies and take care of everything, especially sleep. Sleep Deprivation can have many harmful effects on the body, and you cannot achieve long-term success if you put your body through painful amounts of sleepless hours. Fix your habits; health is the ultimate wealth; without it, everything you do is meaningless.