Why Bill Gates, who believed that "sleep is laziness," changed his mind

Bill Gates is known for his hard work and is the author of the phrase "sleep is laziness". However, a few years ago, the multibillionaire changed his mind dramatically on this issue.

According to NDTV.com, his views were influenced by the death of his father, who died from Alzheimer's disease in 2020. This was discussed during a podcast with Seth Rogan and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogan.

Thus, discussing brain health, Gates admitted that he used to "skimp on sleep."

"When I was in my 30s and 40s, when we talked about sleep, it looked something like this, "Oh, I only sleep six hours," and the other guys are like, "I only sleep five or don't sleep at all." And I was like, "Wow, these guys are great. I should do the same because sleep is a waste of time," the Microsoft co-founder said.

However, after the death of his father, he changed his mind about sleep and even created a "sleep score" system that tracks its duration and quality.

"We now know that good sleep is important for maintaining brain health at any age," Gates said.

In addition, Gates said that his views were strongly influenced by advice from the book "Why We Sleep" by neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker.

"I think," he said, "that it was not very smart to work on caffeine and adrenaline, but I was obsessed with my work and felt that sleeping a lot was an unaffordable luxury." According to the billionaire, he now sleeps 7-8 hours a night.