We all know sleep matters. Yet we still treat it like a luxury instead of a necessity. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” may sound tough—but the truth is, lack of sleep gets you there faster.
Consider this: the day after we move the clocks forward for daylight saving time, heart attacks spike by 24% the next day. Just one lost hour of sleep. That’s all it takes. In contrast, when we gain an extra hour of sleep in fall, heart attacks drop by 21% the next day.
Sleep is not a side note. It’s the dividing line between life and death, peak performance and burnout, creativity and mental blocks.
In the US alone, 43% of employees are sleep-deprived, costing the economy an estimated $136 billion in lost productivity each year.
Pulling an all-nighter or living the hustler lifestyle on five hours of sleep may feel like an edge. In reality, it’s the opposite. Consistently getting enough quality sleep puts you ahead: you’ll outperform and outpace others, especially in productivity. What a well-rested person accomplishes in 8 hours can take a sleep-deprived person 10 hours or more.
Sleep is not just recovery, it’s a source of genius. Dmitri Mendeleev saw the periodic table in a dream after years of frustration. Paul McCartney heard Yesterday in his sleep.
Top athletes like LeBron James and Roger Federer sleep up to 12 hours a day—a long night’s sleep plus naps. Their secret? They know real performance starts in the bedroom, not on the court.
Even the genius inventor Thomas Edison used sleep as a tool. Edison took “genius naps”: holding metal balls in his hand over a pan while dozing. As he slipped into sleep, the balls dropped, waking him up. He’d then jot down the ideas from that twilight state.
You might think, I’m sleeping enough every day and that might be right, but are you also sleeping GOOD enough? It’s not just about the number of hours you sleep. Eight hours of poor sleep can be worse than six hours of deep, restorative rest.
A healthy sleep cycle runs about 90 minutes and repeats several times. Miss deep or REM sleep, and you’re missing the very foundation of peak performance.
During the night your body and brain cycle through different stages:
Want to track your sleep performance? We highly recommend using Whoop.
For high performers, sleep is not a luxury. It’s a strategic tool for sharper focus, stronger resilience, and deeper creativity. When you invest in sleep, you invest in performance, health, and creativity.
So the question isn’t: “Can I afford to sleep more?”
The real question is: “Can I afford not to?”
We all know sleep matters. Yet we still treat it like a luxury instead of a necessity. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” may sound tough—but the truth is, lack of sleep gets you there faster.
Consider this: the day after we move the clocks forward for daylight saving time, heart attacks spike by 24% the next day. Just one lost hour of sleep. That’s all it takes. In contrast, when we gain an extra hour of sleep in fall, heart attacks drop by 21% the next day.
Sleep is not a side note. It’s the dividing line between life and death, peak performance and burnout, creativity and mental blocks.
In the US alone, 43% of employees are sleep-deprived, costing the economy an estimated $136 billion in lost productivity each year.
Pulling an all-nighter or living the hustler lifestyle on five hours of sleep may feel like an edge. In reality, it’s the opposite. Consistently getting enough quality sleep puts you ahead: you’ll outperform and outpace others, especially in productivity. What a well-rested person accomplishes in 8 hours can take a sleep-deprived person 10 hours or more.
Sleep is not just recovery, it’s a source of genius. Dmitri Mendeleev saw the periodic table in a dream after years of frustration. Paul McCartney heard Yesterday in his sleep.
Top athletes like LeBron James and Roger Federer sleep up to 12 hours a day—a long night’s sleep plus naps. Their secret? They know real performance starts in the bedroom, not on the court.
Even the genius inventor Thomas Edison used sleep as a tool. Edison took “genius naps”: holding metal balls in his hand over a pan while dozing. As he slipped into sleep, the balls dropped, waking him up. He’d then jot down the ideas from that twilight state.
You might think, I’m sleeping enough every day and that might be right, but are you also sleeping GOOD enough? It’s not just about the number of hours you sleep. Eight hours of poor sleep can be worse than six hours of deep, restorative rest.
A healthy sleep cycle runs about 90 minutes and repeats several times. Miss deep or REM sleep, and you’re missing the very foundation of peak performance.
During the night your body and brain cycle through different stages:
Want to track your sleep performance? We highly recommend using Whoop.
For high performers, sleep is not a luxury. It’s a strategic tool for sharper focus, stronger resilience, and deeper creativity. When you invest in sleep, you invest in performance, health, and creativity.
So the question isn’t: “Can I afford to sleep more?”
The real question is: “Can I afford not to?”
