Canada (Commonwealth Union)_ Bill Gates recently opened up about his approach to sleep during his prime years at Microsoft, acknowledging his tendency to prioritize minimal sleep as he viewed it as a sign of diligence and avoidance of idleness. In a podcast conversation with Seth Rogan and Lauren Miller Rogan centered around brain health, the billionaire entrepreneur admitted to curtailing his sleep. He recounted a competitive atmosphere where discussions about sleep among colleagues often revolved around diminishing hours of rest, equating less sleep with heightened productivity.
Gates cited his previous perspective that sleep was synonymous with laziness and expendability, a mindset he shared on the inaugural episode of ‘Unconfuse Me’. However, a pivotal shift occurred in Gates’ outlook after his father’s demise due to Alzheimer’s disease in 2020. The personal experience prompted him to adopt a new perspective on sleep and even incorporate a “sleep score” to monitor both the duration and quality of rest. Highlighting the significance of sleep for brain health, Gates underscored its predictive role in dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, emphasizing its criticality in the early stages of life.
Gates added, “Now what we know is that to maintain brain health, getting good sleep even back to teen years is super important,” Mr Gates said. “One of the most predictive factors of any dementia, including Alzheimer’s, is whether you’re getting good sleep”. This notion resonated with Seth Rogan, who recounted the past cultural mindset encapsulated by the phrase, “You will sleep when you are dead.” He drew parallels between this cultural shift in sleep attitudes and the transformation in perceptions about smoking, a transformation reflective of the disparity between popular conceptions and scientific understanding.
Gates further disclosed that he had gleaned insights from ‘Why We Sleep’, a book by neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker, whose work he had reviewed on his blog ‘Gates Notes‘ in 2019. He acknowledged his previous fallacy in equating prolonged sleep with laziness, as he strived to balance his dedication to work with adequate rest. The businessman now endeavors to attain a balanced seven to eight hours of sleep per night, aligning with contemporary research on the indispensability of sleep for overall well-being and cognitive function. He said, “I knew I wasn’t as sharp when I was operating mostly on caffeine and adrenaline, but I was obsessed with my work, and I felt that sleeping a lot was lazy”.
