Melinda French Gates hates CEOs who sleep less: ‘Let’s be honest, they are dumb’

Melinda French Gates’ ex-husband Bill Gates said earlier that in his youth he was influenced by other entrepreneurs bragging about not needing enough sleep which led him to believe that “sleep is laziness and unnecessary”. At the time, he also copied these people but now he aims for a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night.

He had then said, “[I] would be like, ‘I only sleep six hours.’ And the other guy says, ‘I only sleep five!’ and ‘Well, sometimes I don’t sleep at all. I’d be like, ‘Wow, those guys are so good. I need to try harder, because sleep is laziness and unnecessary.’”

The Microsoft co-founder changed his habits after his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he shared, saying, “One of the strongest things to emerge in [the Alzheimer’s] area is the importance of good sleep. It’s one of the most predictive factors of any dementia, including Alzheimer’s, whether you’re getting good sleep.”

Even Elon Musk has talked about pulling all-nighters and sleeping under his desk when his electric vehicle company Tesla tried to meet its production goals. But last year, he said he changed his sleeping habit and now tries to sleep for at least six hours every night.