Rich people don't sleep 8 hours a day.
That's a third of your life. You have 24 hours in your life, you cannot be sleeping 8 hours a day.
You can't live in LA and wake up at 8 o'clock in the morning.
It's 11 o'clock on the east coast, the stock market been open two hours.
They already making decisions about your life and your ass was asleep.
Well.
Is this true?
How many hours do successful people sleep a day?
What are their sleep habits?
How many hours of sleep people should get for what age?
And what are some sleep patterns that can make you more successful.
In this video, we’ll talk about ALL of those, so stayed tuned.
It’s Your Unlocked Potential, and let’s go.
[Intro]
Now everyone is different.
It’s not to say because you sleep 4 or 5 hours a day, you’re guaranteed to be successful.
You might just be sleep deprived.
It’s important to figure out what sleep pattern and length is best for YOU,
and schedule it accordingly.
And if you sleep less, you should take those extra hours to do something productive.
It’s true that if you sleep 8 hours a day, you will spend 1/3 of your life sleeping.
If you want to have more time to balance your hobbies, career, and family – then this
video is one you don’t want to miss.
Before we talk about the different strategies you can use, let’s first talk about how
many hours successful people sleep a day.
Starting off the list with Ellen DeGeneres.
The famous TV show host sleeps 8 hours a day from 11pm to 7am.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, sleeps 7 hours from 12am to 7am.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, sleeps 7 hours from 10pm to 5am.
Then there’s Steve Jobs, who slept 6 to 7 hours and wake up at 6 am.
Barack Obama, the former US president sleeps 6 hours from 1am to 7am.
Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, sleeps 6 hours from 1 am to 7 am.
Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, sleeps 5 to 6 hours
and wakes up at 4 AM or 5 AM.
Mark Zuckerberg sleeps 5 hours and wake up after 8 AM.
Meaning he likely sleeps after 3 AM.
Donald Trump, the current US president, sleeps 3 – 5 hours (between 1–4am or 12 to 5)
So, as we can see, the most successful people sleep between 6 to 7 hours.
We may consider Trump to be part of a group called the “sleepless elite”
and may have the gene known as “The Thatcher Gene”,
Based on Margaret Thatcher’s sleeping habits
of four hours of sleep every night.
The term “Thatcher Gene” is mainly used in the UK, but the rest of the world call
it “short sleeper”.
While this gene is just based on personal accounts, according to a recent study published
in PNAS in 2018, the researchers showed evidence of a gene called the DEC2 that may be responsible
for the short sleep.
A brief background on the science, the gene DEC2 helps regulate circadian rhythms, also
known as the body’s biological clock.
It lets your body know when to sleep or wake up by releasing hormones needed for sleep.
A mutation in DEC2 may allow people to survive on just a few hours of sleep.
So, if you have the Thatcher gene or you’re a short sleeper, it is clear that you will
have an advantage in life.
Let’s say you sleep 4 hours a day, you will only spend 1/6 of your life sleeping (rather
than 1/3 if you sleep 8 hours a day).
Assuming you live until 75, that’s an extra 12.5 years of life you spend awake.
Isn’t that crazy?
Now, the actual question is
What if you want extra time awake so you can do more productive stuff and improve yourself
like starting a business, picking up a hobby, or getting a second job?
To understand what you can do, we need to understand the 5 different cycles or patterns
of sleep.
let’s talk about those now.
The first type is the monophasic cycle.
it is the most basic or standard sleep cycle.
You sleep only once a day, and all the way through at night.
The advantage of this sleep cycle is that it is the most convenient one, and that’s
why it’s what most people go with.
It is the societal norm and has minimal risk of sleep deprivation.
The disadvantage of this sleep cycle is that it usually requires an extensive amount of
total sleep (like 8 to 10 hours), and if you have late or night shift, it can easily disrupt
this sleep cycle.
This sleep cycle is best for those who work regular hours (a 9 to 5 job) and for schedules
where you can’t take naps in between.
Sleep cycle #2 to #5 is what we called alternative sleep cycles, and science has shown it is
more practical to use these sleep cycles to get more out of your life.
They also call these alternative sleep cycles “polyphasic cycles”, meaning it has multiple
sleep phases within a day.
The second type is the biphasic cycle.
It splits your standard sleep pattern into two.
It consists of a 5 to 6 hours of sleep at night, and a power nap during the day (which
can range 30 minutes to an hour and a half).
The advantage of this cycle is that you can save more time.
If you can sleep 6 hours a night and re-energize yourself during the day with a 30-minute nap,
you are saving an hour and a half each day.
Which in 7 days, you’re saving an extra 10.5 hours!
Another advantage of this sleep cycle is that taking brief naps improve your cardiovascular
health and reduces stress!
It also improves memory and cognitive functions!
The disadvantage of this method is if you are experiencing jet lag, sleep issues, stress,
or insomnia – this method might make them worse.
So be sure to talk to an expert before changing your sleep schedule significantly.
This method is most suitable for those who have no trouble sleeping at night when they
nap during the day.
And it is also easier to adapt to for places where biphasic sleep is common, such as Latin
America and the Mediterranean.
Also, for naps, it’s best to not sleep past 4 PM during the day, otherwise your circadian
rhythm will be affected and you won’t feel as tired when it’s time to sleep at night.
The third type is the Everyman cycle.
This cycle splits sleep into 4 sleeps.
It comprises 3.5 hours of sleep, and three 20 minutes naps throughout the day.
This makes up only 4.5 hours of sleep!
The advantage of this cycle is getting a lot of time back, and that you have a lot of flexibility
once you have adapted to napping.
The disadvantage of this method is you will need to nap more often during the day
and sleep deprivation risk is fairly high.
This method is best suited for those who want to use polyphasic sleep to get more waking
hours, and for those who are not comfortable with the Uberman or Dymaxion cycles, which
we’ll talk about now.
The fourth sleep cycle is the Dymaxion cycle.
It’s also split into 4 sleep cycle, but each with only 30 minutes of sleep, meaning
you only sleep for 2 hours a day!
The advantage of cycle is that you sleep the least, so you will get back the most time.
The disadvantage of this cycle is that it is hard to adapt to and is not suitable for
most people.
This cycle is best for people who don’t require that much sleep (like the elderly)
and those with DEC2 gene (the “Thatcher gene” or “short sleepers”).
The fifth and final type is the Uberman cycle.
It’s split into 6 to 8 sleeps a day, with each nap a minimum of 20 minutes.
If you sleep 6 times, it’s 2 hours, if you sleep 8 times, it’s 2 hours and 40 minutes.
The advantage of this method is that you can quickly fall asleep anywhere once you get
used to it.
While the disadvantage is that it is also a hard cycle to adapt to and not suitable
for most people.
This sleep cycle is best for people who can follow a rigid schedule and those who don’t
need to perform activities that require over 3.5 hours of attention at a time.
So, which sleep cycle is the best?
Well, we can’t say.
Everyone is different.
While some people may feel sleep deprived with the polyphasic sleep cycle, others can
get an enormous advantage out of it.
Some people may take longer to adapt to and get used to the sleep cycle, but once they have
mastered it – they get to do so many other productive things in their lives.
One last question we need to answer is:
How many hours do you need depending on your age?
Here is a table outlining all the sleep for different ages:
Feel free to pause the video to see all the details
According to the National Sleep Foundation,
Young adults should have 7 to 9 hours of sleep
No less than 6 hours and no more than 11 hours.
Adults from the adult of 25 to 64 should sleep 7 to 9 hours of sleep
with no less than 6 hours of sleep and no more than 10 hours (of sleep)
Special shout-out to my friend Jorge, who gave me the idea and inspiration to make this video.
If any of you have a topic, you’d like me to talk about, feel free to reach out!
Don’t be shy!
Check out the links in the description below to follow me on Instagram or Facebook and
be sure to like and subscribe if you haven’t.
It is important to take care of your physical body and watch out for those around you.
Especially for parents or parents-to-be.
In another video, I will talk about 12 sleep habits where you can make your sleep more
efficient, which will improve your physical health and the routines in life.
So be sure to look out for that! And continue to have your potential unlocked.
Keep on improving, and keep learning
I will see you all next Wednesday
Cheers!
[OUTRO MUSIC]