Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has admitted that his sleep routine is far from typical in a video interview with Fortune. Hassabis said he sleeps ‘very little’ aiming for about six houses and added that he divides his waking hours into two distinct workdays. “I do try and get six, but I have unusual sleeping habits. I sort of manage during the day,” he explained. Hassabis added that his schedule includes packing his office hours with back-to-back meetings, then returning home for family time and dinner. Around 10 p.m., Hassabis begins what he calls a ‘second day of work’, often continuing until 4 a.m. This late-night block is reserved for creative thinking and research. “I can’t imagine being creative at four in the morning. But, I come alive at about 1 a.m.,” he told Fortune.

The warning on sleep

Despite his unusual routine, Hassabis stressed on the importance of rest and sleep. He warned people that getting less than six hours of sleep can become harmful for the brain and could also lead to chronic sleep deprivation. The comments made by Google DeepMind CEO stress on the importance of balance between acknowledging his own habits and warning others about the cognitive downsides of insufficient sleep.

The practice of decades

Hassabis said that he has followed this unusual schedule for about a decade. He said that this routine has now become a part of his rhythm as he leads Google DeepMind, the AI lab he co-founded in 2010, which Google acquired in 2014. DeepMind merged with Google Brain in 2023 to form Google DeepMind, the team behind AI systems like Gemini and Nano Banana. Hassabis and colleague John Jumper were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work on protein structure prediction.

Tech leaders and their sleeping patterns

Hassabis’ unusual schedule mirrors what other tech leaders have shared about their own sleep routines. Elon Musk has said he functions best with about six hours of sleep, warning that less affects his performance. During Tesla’s production crunch in 2018, Musk even slept on the factory floor. By contrast, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has emphasized the importance of rest, saying in a 2023 interview that he averages about eight hours of sleep.