Chapter 4

Why Great Performers Sleep More

by Tony Schwartz

Why is sleep one of the first things we’re willing to sacrifice as the demands in our lives keep rising? We continue to live by a remarkably durable myth: Sleeping one hour less will give us one more hour of productivity. In reality, even small amounts of sleep deprivation take a significant toll on our health, mood, cognitive capacity, and productivity.

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

When researchers put test subjects into environments without clocks or windows and ask them to sleep any time they feel tired, 95% sleep between seven and eight hours out of every 24. Another 2.5% sleep more than eight hours. That means just 2.5% of us require fewer than seven hours of sleep a night to feel fully rested. That’s one out of every 40 people.

In my talks, when I ask who has had fewer than seven hours of sleep several nights during the past week, the majority raise their hands. That’s true whether it’s an audience of corporate executives, teachers, cops, or government workers.

Great performers are an exception. Typically, they sleep significantly more than the rest of us. In Anders Ericsson’s famous study of violinists, the top performers slept an average of eight and a half hours out of every 24, including a 20- to 30-minute midafternoon nap—some two hours a day more than the average American.

The top violinists also reported that except for practice itself, sleep was the most important factor in improving their skills.

As I gathered research about sleep, I felt increasingly compelled to give it higher priority in my own life. Today, I go to great lengths to ensure that I get at least eight hours every night, and ideally between eight and a half and nine hours, even when I’m traveling.

I still take the overnight red-eye from California to New York, but I’m asleep by takeoff—even if I have to take a sleeping aid. When I get home at 6:00 or 7:00 am, I go right to bed until I’ve had my eight hours. What I’ve learned about those days is that I’d rather work at 100% for five or six hours than at 60% for eight or nine hours.

With sufficient sleep, I feel better, I work with more focus, and I manage my emotions better, which is good for everyone around me. I dislike enduring even a single day when I haven’t had enough sleep because the impact is immediate and unavoidable. On the rare days that I don’t get enough, I try hard to get at least a 20- to 30-minute nap in the afternoon. That’s a big help.

How to Get More Sleep

Here are three other tips to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep:

• Write down what’s on your mind before you get into bed. If you leave items such as unfinished to-do’s and unresolved issues in your working memory, they’ll make it harder to fall asleep, and you’ll end up ruminating about them if you wake up during the night.
• Go to bed earlier—and at a set time. Sounds obvious, right? The problem is there’s no alternative. You’re already waking up at the latest possible time you can. If you don’t ritualize a specific bedtime, you’ll find ways to stay up later, just the way you do now.
• Start winding down at least 45 minutes before you turn out the light. You won’t fall asleep if you’re all wound up from answering e-mail or doing other work. Create a ritual around drinking a cup of herbal tea, listening to music that helps you relax, or reading a dull book.

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Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything (Free Press, 2011). Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony on Twitter at @tonyschwartz and @energy_project.

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Adapted from content posted on hbr.org on March 3, 2011