How many hours of sleep do you get every day? Well, an average human being needs around 6 hours of sleep each day. Most successful people get around four hours of sleep every night. What does that say about the rest of us? Does this mean that we are wasting our time sleeping?

Sleep experts have concluded that not all people actually need the standard six hours of sleep every night, and most people will do an average of about six to eight hours each night. However, only five out of a hundred people who actually think that they can get by with just 6 hours of sleep can. What does this mean? It means that the rest of us are sleep deprived, which is a very dangerous condition it today’s 24-hour economy.

If you have been depriving yourself of sleep like most successful people, then you need to know that it could result in lower pain threshold, a decreased sense of alertness and increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. For most people who are at the top with very demanding work schedules, sleep schedules are often not important and may be pushed aside. In this article, we have compiled some of the weird habits of the super successful.

15. Tom Cruise – Sleeps In A Sanatorium

First on this list is action movie star Tom Cruise. He is known for his popular action-packed films in Hollywood, and is perhaps one of the most successful actors in the world. Tom Cruise has a nasty snore that’s so bad he needs to be isolated in a sanatorium when he sleeps. He apparently converted a small nursery in his house at the back of his home into a soundproof space where he can snore in peace. When you are locked away in Tom Cruise’s Snoratorium, you can’t be heard from outside. It’s apparently, “very small and dark,” as one of Tom Cruise’s visitor has confessed.

14. Winston Churchill – took a series of 2-hour naps

The famous political figure in America took a two-hour nap every single day. Every evening at 5 pm the prime minister would take a weak whiskey and soda before retiring for a two-hour nap. According to Churchill, this two-hour nap ensured that he could get 11/2 days’ work done within 24 hours only. The Prime Minister was known to work through the night and was even nicknamed the night owl due to his irregular sleeping schedule. One of his close friends disclosed that he would take war cabinet meetings in his bath. Would you hold a key business meeting as you shower?

13. Mariah Carey – sleeps with 15-20 humidifiers

For most people, it would take approximately 5 minutes, closed eyes, and a dark room to get them to sleep. However, some people have serious sleeping disorders. To have sound sleep, famous musician Mariah Carey needs to surround her bed with at least 20 humidifiers and needs at least 15 hours of shut-eye sleep every night. According to the musician, she needs to do that to be able to sing the way she does. She has also admitted to sleeping with 20 humidifiers around her bed, that are meant to soothe her sore throat and add some moisture to the air around her, just like sleeping in a steam room.

12. Stephen King – Pillows Need to be positioned a certain way

Well, if you thought Mariah Carey’s sleeping habits were a bit awkward, then you will be astonished when you find out about Stephen King’s sleeping habits. It doesn’t get any weirder than this. According to a book by Lisa Rogak, “Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King,” the award-winning fiction writer has an odd sleeping ritual. Stephen King needs to brush his teeth, wash his hands, and all his pillows need to be pointed in a particular way, very odd behavior if you ask me. He needs to ensure that the open side of the pillowcase is pointed towards the other side of the bed, to be able to sleep. Stephen King doesn’t know why!

11. Charles Dickens – Slept Facing North

World famous writer Charles Dickens reportedly suffered from insomnia. To sleep he had to face northward, and those who knew him confessed that he kept a compass with him to ensure that he slept facing the north. Charles Dickens believed that this quirky ritual increased his creativity. Well, I don’t know about you, but most people can sleep anywhere, in the park, on the bus ride home, or in the office. Well, if Charles Dickens lived today, he’d be glad to discover that smartphones have compasses, so he wouldn’t have a problem facing north.

10. Marissa Mayer – Takes Vacations To Catch Up On Her Sleep

Are you a workaholic, or is your boss a workaholic? Well, Marissa Mayer is a serious workaholic, and those who are close to her confess that she catches up on sleep during vacations after every four months. If you work at Yahoo! then you know she can clock up to 130 hours of work in a week, meaning she rarely has time to sleep. To be able to catch up with her sleep she needs to take a week-long vacation at intervals of four months. Talk about leading by example. Most People at Yahoo! will leave her at work and find her still working in the morning. Habit or sickness? You be the judge!

9. Emily Bronte – Walked Around Until She Became Tired

Do you suffer from insomnia? Well, how do you deal with it? Some people have to watch television to fall asleep, or listen to lazy music or even have a warm glass of milk to fall asleep. Well, Emily Bronte had one peculiar habit. It is believed that this 19^th-century novelist and poet suffered from insomnia, therefore, to get the sleep she needed to walk around the dining room table until she felt tired enough to go to bed. Well, for most people, this trick wouldn’t work. Maybe Winston Churchill’s Whiskey and soda trick could! If you think this is weird, then find out how rap star Eminem sleeps.

8. Eminem – Puts Tin Foil On His Windows

Well for most people, and by this we mean normal people, you will need to put a dark shade on the window to keep your room dark enough to sleep. However, rap star Eminem has taken this to a whole new level. To be able to sleep, he needs to wrap tinfoil around his windows to get better quality sleep. You might not understand the mechanics behind this, but this according to reliable sources gets the rapper straight to sleep. He also needs to listen to white noise throughout the night; he admits that this helps him sleep better, especially when traveling between different time zones.

7. Arianna Huffington – Has a Detailed Sleep Process

Well, no one takes sleep more seriously than Arianna Huffington. After collapsing due to exhaustion back in 2007, she has become an advocate for better sleep and has even turned her bedroom into a slumber palace – talk about taking sleep into another dimension. Before getting to bed, she will turn all her gadgets off and get them out of her bedroom. Then she takes a hot bath with Epsom salt and lavender oil. This according to her helps calm her mind and forget the stresses of the day. She sleeps in a slumber garment, your boyfriend’s t-shirt wouldn’t pass here! She then reads some poetry or philosophy before dozing off.

6. Martha Stewart – Sleeps Four Hours A Day

When it comes to success, very few people have achieved the same measure of success as Martha Stewart. She credits this to lack of sleep. Martha gets up hours before her crew arrives at 6:30 am to cook breakfast for a host of pets including horses, donkeys and some 200 chicken. She is also known to stay up late at night reading or watching late night TV. She confessed that her life is exhausting, however, sleep isn’t a priority for her, it’s not important. Not a lot of people agree with her on this. Martha Stewart only has four hours of sleep each day.

5. Leonardo Da Vinci – Took 20-Minute Naps Every four hours

If you thought Martha Stewart’s sleeping patterns were a bit odd or irregular, then you will be mind blown when you find out about Leonardo Da Vinci’s sleeping patterns. Da Vinci followed a weird form of extreme polyphasic sleep schedule that is known as the Uberman Sleep Cycle. Most people wouldn’t be able to handle this kind of cycle today. Well, Da Vinci’s sleep pattern consisted of 20-minute naps every four hours. This kind of sleep pattern gave the scientist more time awake during his day. However, sleep experts conclude that it could make it difficult for the scientist to work on longer projects.

4. Michael Phelps – Sleeps in a high altitude environment

The World Olympic swimming champion needs to sleep by placing his bedroom environment at a high altitude. How does he do this? Well, for this to work he needs to decrease the amount of oxygen in his bedroom, forcing his body to work harder to produce more red blood cells to deliver oxygen to his muscles. However, the overall effect of this it to increase his endurance and prepare him for competitions at high elevations. Phelps has a small box inside his room, more like the ‘boy and the bubble,’ he has to sleep on it to get a night sleep.

3. Nikola Tesla – Never Slept More Than 2 Hours Per Day

The inventor never got more than two hours of sleep in a day. Well if you thought Leonardo Da Vinci had weird sleeping habit then Nikola Tesla took it to a whole new level. Just like Da Vinci, he followed the Uberman sleep pattern and claimed never to sleep for more than two hours in a single day. According to close confidants of the inventor, he once worked for 84 hours straight in his lab without sleeping. According to the inventor, there is no thrill that is greater than that which is felt by an inventor as he witnesses some creation of the brain turning into a success.

2. Lyndon B. Johnson – Split His Day In Two

The former president also had a very weird sleeping behavior that saw him split his day into two to ensure that he was able to get more work done. His day began at 6:30 am, and he worked until 2 pm. After exercising he would get to bed for a 30-minute nap and get up again at 4 pm, and he would continue working until early morning. It is said that he picked up his sleeping routine from his predecessor John F. Kennedy, who was also known to split his day into shifts to get more work done.

1. Margaret Thatcher – Slept Four Hours Per Night During The Week

Margaret Thatcher was the only woman to ever hold the post of Prime Minister, meaning she had a lot to prove to the people who got her there and those who wanted her out. She excelled in whatever she did tremendously, and most people think it was because of her deprived sleep schedule. Press Secretary for the prime minister, Sir Benard Ingham, confessed that Margaret Thatcher only slept for four hours a night during the week. Ingham however, could not account for her sleeping patterns during the weekends, since he was never with her, but he thinks she probably had more sleep then.