Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis: I try to sleep 6 hours every day, and I only really feel alert around 1 a.m.

IT House February 12 News, on Wednesday, Fortune published an interview with Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Hassabis revealed that he almost never gets enough sleep and splits his wakeful hours into two work periods.

When asked about his sleep duration, Hassabis said, “I do try to get six hours of sleep, but my sleep habits are a bit unusual. I can generally manage during the day.” He believes that sleeping less than six hours is harmful to the brain.

Hassabis co-founded DeepMind in 2010, and Google completed its acquisition in 2014. In 2023, DeepMind merged with Google Brain to form Google DeepMind, responsible for developing AI tools like Gemini and Nano Banana. Thanks to his research in protein structure prediction, Hassabis and his colleague John Jumper will receive the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Regarding work pace, Hassabis said that he tries to fill his daytime schedule with meetings, with “almost no” gaps in between. After returning home to spend time with his family and having dinner, he continues working. “Then, around 10 p.m., I start the second workday, which lasts until 4 a.m., during which I think and do more creative research.”

Hassabis added that this routine has lasted about ten years. He once admitted, “I can’t imagine staying creative at 4 a.m., but I really start to feel alert around 1 a.m.”

Hassabis’s schedule is highly consistent with the sleep habits openly discussed by many tech entrepreneurs, especially during startup phases or rapid business expansion.

According to IT House, Elon Musk has stated that about six hours of sleep yields the highest efficiency, and sleep deprivation affects work performance. In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg, Musk said that during certain production ramp-up periods at Tesla, he even slept on the factory floor. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also mentioned in a 2023 interview that his average sleep time is about eight hours.