How Much Sleep Do You Need to Be Successful?

When it comes to being successful in life, you can’t underestimate the power of sleep. A good night’s sleep can help to boost your energy and set you up for a productive day ahead. But how much sleep do you need to be successful?

The experts say that adults should be getting somewhere 7–9 hours of rest every night, however, there are a lot of very successful people in the world who don’t necessarily subscribe to this pattern. In fact, some of them get a lot less sleep than the experts recommend!

Sleep experts, Dormeo, have conducted some research looking into the sleep patterns of some of the world’s most high-flying business people to see if their success is affected by their sleeping habits. The people chosen range from politicians to sports stars to CEOs of huge companies, ensuring an insight into the routines of a diverse group of leaders.

They also tried to ensure they had a good range of personality types by using Myers–Briggs Type Indicators. This method assesses how someone perceives the world and their decision-making process, before assigning them a personality type.

Let’s take a look at what their results revealed…

The sleep habits of 10 successful celebrities

It is interesting to note that all of these famous faces are early risers, with no-one getting up after 7am every morning, suggesting that the early bird really does catch the worm!

There’s more variety in the bedtimes of our leaders, with Tim Cook (9:30pm) and Oprah Winfrey (10pm) being those that like an early night. At the other end of the scale, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Barack Obama all go to bed at 1am, making them the night owls of the bunch.

How much sleep do you need? Tips for balancing sleep and your career

Phil Lawlor, Sleep Expert at Dormeo commented:

“While you might look at this list of famous faces and think that it might be worth trying out life as a “short-sleeper”, it’s worth keeping in mind that they are likely to be a tiny minority. Also, remember that half of our list got at least 7 hours each night, including Tim Cook, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey, so there are plenty of ultra-successful people who get plenty of rest.

The likelihood is that you will be able to approach your work best when you’re well-rested. With this in mind, I wanted to share some quick tips for balancing sleep and your career.

Firstly, work next to a window, one of our recent studies found that staff slept better when exposed to natural light throughout the day. So, try to spend as much of your day near a source of light, such as a window or skylight, and you’ll find it easier to sleep.

Leave your work out of the bedroom, while it might be tempting to see what the latest work updates are in the evening before nodding off, you should try to keep electronic devices with screens away from the bedroom. This is because the blue light they emit can trick your brain into thinking it’s still daytime.

Make your room a sleep haven. Try to create the ideal sleep conditions in your bedroom so that you fall asleep faster. It needs to be as dark as possible, between 16–18⁰C, and your bed needs to be comfy and supportive. This might mean you need to invest in blackout blinds and a new mattress, as well as turning down your heating.

Take a nap, they are a well-known way to recharge your batteries and can help to top up limited sleep. If you’re the boss, you can probably take one, but if you’re not, it may be worth discussing the benefits with your firm.”