In a recent appearance in Joe Rogan’s experience podcast, Elon Musk said he sleeps about six hours every night – out of necessity, or else his job suffers. This admission of data-driven Musk is something that every overworked startup founder or business manager must take seriously. This applies not only to sleep, but to how much you should work and rest in general.
Musk, who recently became the richest person in the world and is remaking the auto industry while building tunnels under congested cities and preparing to colonize Mars, spent more than two and a half hours talking to Rogan about everything from Neuralink to orbital space flights , how he originally designed the Model S simply as a car that he himself would like to drive.
About five minutes later, Rogan comments on the many different projects that Musk is leading. “How do you have time?” Rogan asks. He adds that he never understood Musk’s ability to build space rockets as just one of several businesses. “Well, I work a lot,” says Musk. “Normally, I would be working until one or two in the morning.” He doesn’t usually do it on weekends, he adds, but sometimes he does.
“How much do you sleep?” Rogan asks.
“About six hours,” says Musk.
“For someone who does as much as you do, it’s amazing that you can squeeze that out,” says Rogan. (He is known to stay eight hours a night).
“I tried to sleep less, but the total productivity decreases”, explains Musk.
That is one way of putting it. In 2018, Musk got off track when trying to speed up the production of the Tesla Model 3. First he tweeted that he had “guaranteed funding” to make Tesla private when it wasn’t quite true. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued, and Musk and Tesla each paid a fine of $ 20 million. Musk also had to step down as Tesla’s chairman for two years, although he remained CEO. This was shortly after he gained widespread scorn for calling a man involved in rescuing boys trapped in a cave in Thailand “mason face” during a Twitter brawl over a Musk-designed rescue submarine.
Working 120 hours a week.
With his reputation in a downward spiral, Musk gave a confessional interview to New York Times, in which he admitted that he worked 120 hours a week, spent days without leaving the Tesla factory and depended on Ambien on the rare occasions when he slept. The combination of overwork, exhaustion and Ambien was, at least in part, to blame for his self-destructive tweet. Later that year, he reported reducing his workload to 80 to 90 “sustainable” weekly hours.
Musk’s admission that sleeping less than six hours a night made things worse rather than better is worth taking seriously. Even if your only priority is to work (although it shouldn’t be), this is yet a good argument for getting as much sleep as your body and brain need. Musk seems to have conducted this experiment with himself and found that sleep is necessary for his own productivity.
In the context of Musk’s absurd work schedule and his habit of driving beyond human limits, sleeping six hours a night is a healthy step and an admission that working beyond a certain point is counterproductive, even if you are a genius. And, he tells Rogan, six hours seems like the right amount for him. “I don’t want to sleep anymore,” he says.
This does not necessarily mean that he is getting enough sleep, according to some sleep experts. They argue that most adults need seven to nine hours a night and that we should try to spend more than eight hours in bed, as part of our time is spent falling asleep or waking up. And, they say, people can feel perfectly good, but still can’t sleep.
The reality is that you need adequate sleep every night to be more creative and efficient, and also that you will do your best if you limit your working hours to a reasonable number and take frequent breaks. People who spend a lot of time away from work report doing more – not less – than if they had worked more hours.
Think of it this way: even Musk, who is famous for being hardworking and determined, understands the importance of getting a good night’s sleep and taking time off work. If he does, so should you.