Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – If you read the success stories of entrepreneurs of various ages and ethnicities, there will be one thing in common between them, namely eliminating the important role of sleep. They are willing to stay awake for hours to continue working. In fact, there are also those who are old, but continue to work more than 8 hours a day, thereby reducing sleep time.
World entrepreneur Bill Gates also had this opinion. He dared to say that sleeping was an activity done by lazy people and that it was completely unnecessary. However, Bill Gates’ view has now changed. In living the rest of his life, this 67 year old man wants to spend a lot of time sleeping. This was revealed by him in his latest podcast entitled “Unconfused Me with Bill Gates,” which featured guests Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen.
Gates said the reason for this change in mindset was due to his fear of suffering from Alzheimer’s as his father had. Due to this fear, he began to learn more about brain health and came to the conclusion that sleep is important.
“One of the strongest things that comes out about preventing Alzheimer’s is the importance of good sleep. That’s one of the most predictive factors of any dementia, including Alzheimer’s, is that you sleep well,” said Gates, quoted from CNBC International.
On the podcast, Seth Rogen agreed with Gates. Rogen said his mother-in-law’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis prompted him to take sleep more seriously.
“When I was young I often heard the saying “You will sleep when you are dead. Sleep is not that important. You don’t need to sleep.” And now we know that this is completely contrary to scientific research. Sleep is the single most important thing you can do to keep your brain healthy,” says Rogen.
Please note, Alzheimer’s or in general dementia is a disease caused by damage to brain cells which causes communication between cells to be disrupted. As a result, brain function decreases and causes memory problems.
Gates and Rogen’s current statement that sleep is important is in line with Harvard Medical School research in 2021. In this research, researchers attempted to analyze the relationship between the sleep characteristics of 2,800 people aged 65 years and over. The results showed that people sleeping less than five hours per night were twice as likely to develop dementia and die within five years, compared to those who slept between six and eight hours per night.
Furthermore, sleep is also important for younger people. Because, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2016), sleeping 8-10 hours per night can help teenagers develop optimal intellectual growth, mental health and memory. In fact, the United States CDC says that getting 9 hours of sleep per night for people aged 20-64 years can restore physical and mental health.
Later, the Microsoft founder’s words were proven. To Inc, Gates said that getting a good night’s sleep allows him to think more creatively and innovatively. Both of them will become the main key to success.
“Even though it’s fun staying up all night until my eyes are red, if I have to be creative, I need seven hours of sleep. I can make a speech without much sleep, I can do some work that way, but in terms of creative thinking, I won’t be able to do much without seven O’clock.”
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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