Sleepless nights and early starts are part and parcel of entrepreneurship – but should leaders be getting more shut-eye?
Tesla founder Elon Musk famously sleeps just six hours a night, as do Virgin CEO Richard Branson and former US president Barack Obama. Many tech bosses, like Apple’s CEO Time Cook, boast schedules that see them rise as early as 3 or 4am.
But rather than a badge of honour, a lack of sleep is bad for your health and bad for business, says Irish tech entrepreneur Dylan Collins.
Good sleep hygiene is his “new crusade”, he said on this week’s episode of All In.
“If I’m an investor in a company the first question I’m asking a founder is; ‘how much are you sleeping right now?’” Dylan told host Yvonne Redmond.
Listen to the full interview here.
“One of the things that would be amazing is that if a standard part of investor agreements became that CEOs and co-founders had to commit to the same sort of rest periods that pilots have to commit to. Sleep is the most important thing.”
Being well-rested is key for problem-solving, Dylan continued, but admitted that he hasn’t always taken sleep seriously himself.
“This is an amazing mistake that I made. For years I was part of that just like idiotic cohort who went, ‘OK sleep is dead time and how do I minimise sleep?’ Anyone who is doing that, that is just ridiculous.
“You should maximise the amount of sleep you’re getting. People spend more time scheduling their gym than they do scheduling sleep.”
Dylan features on this week’s episode of All In, JOE’s new business show.
All In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Wednesday
