how much sleep does Jack Welch get? Michael Dell?  Bill Gates?  Barry Diller

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Clarification of Question by birkett7-ga on 19 May 2003 10:50 PDT

I"ll take the sleeping habits of the top CEOs, executives out there,
including Jack Welch and Bill Gates.  Thank you.

birkett7 --

Thanks for the clarification.  I have found information on the
sleeping habits of many present and former top corporate executives. 
After listing those, I will describe my search strategy, which should
help you find more information on some less prominent business
executives, if you are interested in doing so.


Bill Gates says that he gets seven hours of sleep a night, because
"that’s what [he needs] to stay sharp and creative and upbeat."
"Bill Gates' Web Site" (almost halfway down the page)
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1996q&a/QA960924.asp 

Jack Welch reportedly also needed seven hours of sleep per night when
he was running GE:
Football Stories (This is a Google-cached document; the original is
not accessible)
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:T7t7bM_UoWMC:66.162.75.88/~footbal/2002_health.shtml+%22Jack+Welch%22+%22hours+of+sleep%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Jeff Immelt, who replaced Jack Welch as CEO of GE, gets by on less
sleep than his former boss -- five hours:
"Meeting Jeff Immelt, there's a sense that this is a guy who wakes up
after his five hours of sleep, looks in the mirror and says, 'Damn,
you're good.'"
Business Week Online: September 17, 2001
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_38/b3749088.htm 


The rest of this list is summarized from an April 9, 1999 Wall Street
Journal article entitled "Sleep: The New Status Symbol," by Nancy Ann
Jeffrey, the body of which appears on various websites, including that
of the Traverse City, Michigan Record-Eagle, here:
Traverse City Record-Eagle
http://www.record-eagle.com/1999/apr/04sleep.htm

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, sleeps eight hours a night and has this
to say about it:
"I'm more alert and I think more clearly" as a result, Mr. Bezos says.
"I just feel so much better all day long if I've had eight hours."

Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape, also needs eight hours, and
says:
"I can get by on 7 1/2 without too much trouble. Seven and I start to
degrade. Six is suboptimal. Five is a big problem. Four means I'm a
zombie."

Michael Bonsignore, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell, Inc., gets seven
hours and thinks sleep is a "necessary evil."

Richard L. Huber, CEO of Aetna, also needs seven hours, as does --

James A. Unruh, former CEO of Unisys.

John J. Dooner, Chairman and chief executive, McCann-Erickson
WorldGroup needs 6.5 hours.

Bud Konheim, Chief executive, Nicole Miller, only needs 4-5 hours.

Donald J. Trump, Chairman and president, The Trump Organization,
notorious night owl that he is, reported that he gets only 3-4 hours
sleep per night.



Additional site:

Here is a June 18, 2001, USA Today article on CEOs and their sleeping
habits:
Intellispace.net: "Late to Bed, Early to Rise Puts CEOs Ahead" 
http://www.intellispace.net/press/articles/view_article.html?number=43



Search strategy:

The sleep habits of Bill Gates and Jack Welch were found with simple
Google searches using the following terms:

"bill gates" "hours of sleep"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22Bill+Gates%22+%22hours+of+sleep%22

"jack welch" "hours of sleep"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Jack+Welch%22+%22hours+of+sleep%22&btnG=Google+Search


A link to the Wall Street Journal article about CEO's sleeping habits
appeared as the first result when I looked for information on Jeff
Bezos, who is a subject of that article, using the following terms:
"jeff bezos" "hours of sleep" OR "hours a night"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22jeff+bezos%22+%22hours+of+sleep%22+OR+%22hours+a+night%22

Among other searches, I used the following terms as a reasonably
comprehensive but concise way of looking for the sleep needs of other
CEOs:
ceo OR ceos "hours of sleep" OR "hours a night"
://www.google.com/search?q=CEO+OR+CEOs+%22hours+of+sleep%22+OR+%22hours+a+night%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N

You might find that search or a similar one to be helpful in expanding
your database of the sleeping habits of business leaders to include
"lesser lights" that the ones I have listed in response to your
question.


I am confident that the information above is what you are seeking.  If
anything is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating this
answer.


markj-ga

birkett7 --

The problem with a multi-part question like this is that only some
parts may be answerable.  In such a situation the question will often
go entirely unanswered, depriving the customer of a useful partial
answer and depriving a researcher of compensation for productive
research.

In this case, I have found information on the sleeping habits of Jack
Welch and Bill Gates, but not those of Michael Dell and Barry Diller.

If another researcher is not able to give you a complete answer in a
reasonable time, you might want to consider splitting this question
into at least two parts (reducing the prices accordingly) and
canceling the multi-part version.

markj-ga

Dear markj-ga,
You didn't give the sleeping habits of Jack Welch and Bill Gates.

birkett7--

Thanks for the five-star rating and the tip.

markj-ga