Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates has taken CEOs and tech entrepreneurs to task for bragging about getting minimal sleep, claiming it maximises productivity. An interview with Vanity Fair ended with her calling the approach “so dumb.” She confided that she gets between seven and eight hours of sleep at night.

In the interview, French Gates identified the negative side of sleep deprivation, adding that “some of us didn’t want to be around them! Let’s be honest!” referring to CEOs, in her opinion, who advocate for a destructive and performative deprivation of sleep.

Physicians support this, highlighting the need for sufficient rest for optimal health. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults aged 18 to 60 years should sleep for at least seven hours in a day.

Extreme sleep deprivation causes critical health conditions such as diseases of the heart and kidneys, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression.

French Gates’ comments come as a growing number of prominent figures, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, have acknowledged the importance of sleep and are prioritising it in their own lives.

“I’ve tried [to sleep] less… Even though I’m awake more hours, I get less done,” Musk told CNBC last year. “And the brain pain level is bad if I get less than six hours [of sleep].”

Research shows that getting enough sleep is essential for peak physical and mental performance, and sleep deprivation can even mimic the effects of being intoxicated.

According to CDC, insufficient sleep impairs cognitive performance, which can increase the likelihood of motor vehicle and other transportation accidents, industrial accidents, medical errors, and loss of work productivity that could affect the wider community.