What do successful people do before going to bed?
What you do directly before going to bed has a massive impact on how you’re going to feel the next day. We’ve taken a look at some of the world’s most successful people’s pre—bedtime habits and, as you can see, there’s not necessarily a one rule fits all approach. While some follow the conventional advice of winding down early and getting around eight hours, you might be surprised at just how little sleep some of these influential figures get by with!
Bill Gates
Who: Founder of Microsoft
- An avid bedtime reader, Gates takes in inspiring biographies, history books and philosophical texts.
- He claims to read for an hour every night before falling asleep and aims to get seven hours sleep per night.
- In his own words: “I can give a speech without much sleep, I can do parts of my job that way, but in thinking creatively, I’m not much good without seven hours.”
Barack Obama
Who: President of the USA
- The outgoing US President won’t miss staying up until 11pm on conference calls with his senior staffers.
- Obama also likes to stay up reading and writing well past midnight each night.
- Finally, he usually heads to bed as late as 1am, sleeping until 7am.
Elon Musk
Who: Co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors
- A self-confessed ‘night owl’, Musk usually sleeps from around 1am to 7am.
- He has admitted to getting “really wired” after drinking up to eight cans of Diet Coke a day, as well as two cups of coffee, allowing him to power through until the early hours.
- Has now cut down to “one or two” per day.
Arianna Huffington
Who: Co-founder of Huffington Post
- Huffington collapsed from exhaustion back in 2007 and has since been an advocate for getting a great night’s sleep.
- She is known to have banned all electronics from her bedroom, instead keeping a stack of real books for bedtime reading.
- Arianna gets eight hours of uninterrupted sleep each night, without fail.
Stephen King
Who: Author
- King has a very specific bedtime ritual which involves brushing his teeth and washing his hands.
- He also has to have all of his pillows facing a certain way, with the open side of the pillowcase pointed toward the other side of the bed.
- Stephen doesn’t really have any idea why he does all this, but each to their own!
Michael Lewis
Who: Author
- The US author of Moneyball used to write between the hours of 7pm and 4am before starting this family.
- Lewis did so because of the lack of interruptions, claiming that ‘late nights are wonderfully tranquil.’
Sheryl Sandberg
Who: COO of Facebook
- Despite working for the social media giant, Sheryl Sandberg at least knows when to switch off.
- She reluctantly turns her phone off before going to bed although she does check her emails first thing in the morning upon waking up.
Kate White
Who: Former Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan
- White used to work on fiction writing during the day, before staying up late editing Cosmopolitan and blog writing.
- “I know it sounds awful, but I think of it as if I’m tending a bar in the evening – a bar of ideas.”
