You’ve been told again and again that getting a solid seven to nine hours of sleep is crucial for your body to function properly. But, for some of us, going to bed before midnight and waking up at 7 AM is both physically and mentally impossible. And, research shows that we aren’t the only ones unable to follow the regular, monophasic sleep cycle.
Turns out, that might be OK. Throughout history, some of the most accomplished and successful people—everyone from Leonardo da Vinci and Sigmund Freud to Donald Trump and Barack Obama—had sleeping schedules that greatly differed from the norm. da Vinci, for instance, followed the Uberman sleep cycle and took a 20-minute nap every four hours throughout his day. Trump, on an equally strange note, intentionally only sleeps for three hours a night because he wants to stay ahead of his competition.
Read on to find out when and how often these famous people catch some ZZZs, and see how your sleep schedule stacks up.
