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When It Comes To Sleep, Are You An Ellen DeGeneres, Mariah Carey or Margaret Thatcher?

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When it comes to the entrepreneurial life, sleep is very often the first thing sacrificed at the altar of success. President Donald Trump claims to sleep three to four hours a night, Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson gets five to six hours, and Silicon valley CEO Marissa Mayer said she pulled at least one work all-nighter a week for five years when she worked at Google.

But the notion of the "sleepless elite" is one we should do away with, as plenty have been successful without sacrificing it: Ellen DeGeneres logs a solid eight hours a night, Winston Churchill swore by his midday nap and Mariah Carey said she needed 15 hours of sleep in a room full of humidifiers in order to be able to sing the way she wanted to.

Many have tested different routines in order to stay productive, well-rested and on top of their business. And just as many have tried to cheat sleep in order to get more done.

Sadly, only 1% of us has the "Thatcher Gene"–named after the British prime minister who could operate like a machine on just four hours a night–but these entrepreneurs think they’ve cracked it.

Try a ‘cat nap’

Why shouldn’t we take inspiration from our kids, who take afternoon naps to recharge their batteries?

Gemma Birbeck, founder of Leuly Photography and PR, mainly works from home, where she struggles to stick to "normal" office hours, and can often find herself finishing at 2 a.m. To cope with the lack of sleep, she schedules daytime naps.

Birbeck said: “If I've been awake since early morning, I swear by a midday nap in order to recharge myself. I find that you can experience writer's block after a certain number of hours, and having a nap takes that away. When you wake up, it feels like a brand new day, your mind is reset and your body is recharged so you get that morning motivation all over again.”

Naudia Salmon, founder of anti-insect sleepwear company We Drifters, also naps during the day, but only if she has slept less than 7.5 hours the night before.

Salmon explains: “Each night I plan when to go to sleep and wake up based on sleep cycles so that I never wake up during the middle of a cycle which really makes you feel tired. Each sleep cycle is 1.5 hours long, so I aim to get 4.5, 6, or 7.5 hours of sleep each night. When I have less than 7.5 hours I schedule a 30-minute nap during the day and often listen to a yoga nidra recording, which is a really effective way to catch-up on hours and can be done sitting on the train.”

Chuck a pillow

Sometimes, simply trying to fall asleep while your mind is racing is half the battle. Nicholas Emerson-Mazzone, founder and CEO of fundraising platform Supportful, has created his own method to stay well-rested.

He says: “I've always had trouble getting to sleep, so when I lay awake at night and something I want to remember for tomorrow comes to mind, instead of getting up, grabbing my phone and allowing it to keep me up longer or unsettle me more, I just take a pillow and fling it across the room. It's quiet so it won't wake my spouse who's sound asleep and it won't cause any damage if thrown in the wrong direction.

“It's a mnemonic technique that allows me to go to sleep knowing when I wake up in the morning, I'll see the visual reminder of the discarded and oddly placed pillow which, in turn, triggers me to quickly recall the thoughts of the night before. For years, this has allowed me to stay focused on getting to sleep and allowing myself to relax.”

Ban the alarm clock

Calloway Cook, president of dietary supplement company Illuminate Labs, works remotely and never sets an alarm unless he has a meeting.

Cook says: “I know this goes against the grain of all the startup and business gurus, but it's important for my mental health and well-being. I tend to wake up early anyway, anywhere between 7 and 9 AM. I feel significantly more refreshed and relaxed waking naturally than I used to with an alarm, and I do feel it positively impacts my morning work productivity.”

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Sleep at weekends

With the pressures of the workday demanding huge amounts of time and energy, some elect to save all their sleeping for a big recharge at the weekend.

Jeremy Ong, founder of money-making site HUSTLR, once slept uninterrupted for 37 hours after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the biggest days of the year for his business.

He says: “At weekends, I recharge completely, even if it means I sleep for more than 12 hours. When my company has important events or launches, I take this to a whole new level.”

Ong usually goes to bed at 4 a.m. every day and wakes between 10 and 11 a.m. He adds: “Doing this keeps me extremely fresh throughout my workings hours which finish at 9 p.m. My schedule on weekdays is usually extremely packed and I'm the type that likes draining my energy level to zero every day before giving up to sleep.”

But Christine Hansen, a sleep expert who runs Sleep Like A Boss, discourages people from doing this as it can throw you into “jet lag mode.” She advises a maximum of 1.5 hours catch up sleep, and no more.

Hansen recommends office-bound CEOs–who think they’ll be seen as "weak" if they nap during the day–to block out 30 minutes for an external appointment to force them outside, either for a walk, massage, or quick nap in the car.

She adds: “It doesn’t need to be sleep that brings balance, it can also simply be resting. A change of scenery, putting on some noise-canceling headphones and just resting your eyes and letting the mind wander is just as good.”

She also recommends the "napoccino" which involves drinking an espresso shot just before taking a power nap. “Caffeine takes around 20 minutes to kick in so you wake up refreshed with the added kick from the espresso,” explains Hansen.

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