Herb Kelleher Biography Articles & Resources

"Some of the best sleep I had was in the days of the takeover," he says. "I worked so hard during the day that I just crashed out. Even though I had a lot on my mind, I just had a way of wiping that out."

Hard data on the subject is sketchy. But many successful people seem to need less sleep. Considering the longer hours today's fast-paced economy demands, that may give them a the competition. Take Mike Muth. The 51- year-old Sheboygan businessman has already built and sold two companies and now is well into his third round of entrepreneurship.

Each day, he says, he arrives home about 7 ., has dinner at about 8:15 and is in bed by 10:30. He is up and at work again between 4 . and 6 . "I don't try to wake up, I just wake up," says Muth, an athletic, high-energy man. He spends the first couple of hours working at home, making overseas calls to contacts who are already in the middle of their business day, then heads for the office.

Is it really possible to get by on such little sleep day after day? For a lucky few, perhaps.

"There does seem to be a small segment of the population that has a relatively low need for sleep," says University of Wisconsin-Madison sleep researcher Steve Weber. "They can get along just fine with six or less hours of sleep habitually. Those people may have something of a competitive advantage if their genetic and nurtured constitution allows them to maintain high cognitive and behavioral efficiency and a good mood, to boot."

But that's only 2% of us, Weber figures, whereas he maintains that "most of the population is sleep-deprived." Personality Traits

Still, research from decades ago suggested that short sleepers who need six hours or fewer "tended to be people who had what you might call Horatio Alger personalities," Weber says. "They were energetic, optimistic, conventional in terms of their attitudes and habits." Long sleepers those needing 9 or 10 hours a night "tended to be more unconventional, non-conformist, more likely to be depressed," he adds. "The compensation was that they were more creative."

Sleep researchers say one's sleep needs seem to be largely ingrained, but that hasn't stopped some from trying to change theirs in pursuit of worldly success.

Washington Post reporter David Maraniss writes in his new Clinton biography, "First in His Class" that Clinton was in his first semester at Georgetown University when a professor, lecturing on great men, "noted that many of them required less sleep than other mortals.

"The greatest leaders, he said, often slept no more than five hours and refreshed themselves during the day with brief catnaps," Maraniss wrote. "Clinton returned to the dorm room after that morning lecture and immediately set his alarm clock for a 20-minute nap. And he began sleeping five hours a night."

In an article last November, Fortune magazine exhorted aspiring managers and executives to strive for stamina. The story's author even coined the term "staminacs" to describe a breed "whose energy never seems to run down."

"They rise early and retire late, many thriving on five hours of sleep a night or less," the magazine declared. If the generalization isn't daunting enough, there's a chart of star CEOs' sleeping habits and working hours. The magazine reports that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, logs six hours of sleep a night and 60 a week at the office. He's a piker compared with Southwest Air's CEO Herb Kelleher, who reports 90-hour work weeks on a mere five hours a night of sleep.

They have their counterparts in Corporate Wisconsin.

Susan Marks, founder and CEO of the temporary help firm ProStaff, reports she usually thrives on about six hours of sleep a night. Marks puts in long hours 12 or more in a day is typical running and building her company. Sleeps At Intervals

"I'm an early to bed, early to rise person," says Marks, who hits the rack soon after her children at 8 or 9 . After a couple of hours, she wakes again at 11 or so when her husband, Charlie, comes to bed, and may stay up for an hour or two to catch news on CNN or cruise the Internet. Then it's back to bed until about 5 .

"The alarm never has to wake me," she says. "Almost never."

Six or seven hours of sleep a night are usually sufficient for Virgis Colbert, senior vice president for operations at Miller Brewing Co.

"I get in bed around 10 or 11 . and read for a while," Colbert says. Although he sets his clock radio for 5:20 ., he's usually awake by 5 and working out on his Nordic Track by 5:30. And he often organizes his days to hold business meetings over a 7:30 . breakfast.

Others come less naturally to shorter sleep.

Can you actually learn to thrive, not merely get by, on less sleep? Medical College of Wisconsin sleep researcher Selim Benbadis is skeptical.

"If one tried to do that, it would be at the expense of optimal functioning," Benbadis says. "The consensus {among sleep experts} is that sleep is sacred and sleep is something that we crave like food. It is an essential need."

Sleep researchers say mid- afternoon drowsiness is a natural response and that the siesta found in some cultures actually makes sense.

Naps are not catching on, however. An exception is Muth, the Sheboygan entrepreneur, who keeps a couch in his office and will nap for 15 minutes or so if his energy flags in mid-afternoon.

If there is a connection between success and sleep or the lack of same Milwaukee business psychologist Robert Scheid suggests it may be a more complex relationship than simple cause and effect. Waking Hours Maximized

When it comes to highly successful people, "whatever they do, they do it very effectively and efficiently," Scheid says. "I think a lot of very successful people are more efficient in their recharging, because everything they do, they do with focus."

The ambitious who aspire to success but still know they need their rest need not lose heart, however.

Consider the example of Steve Bomba, chief technology officer at Johnson Controls. Bomba rose to senior positions at Allen-Bradley and then at Johnson Controls. He's everyone's image of a hard worker, putting in a full day at the office and a solid 2 1/2 hours a night of work-related reading at home.

Even with that regimen, Bomba still gets eight solid hours of sleep, he says, usually from 9 or 9:30 . to 5 or 5:30 . He's learned to manage his life by carving out busy work such as junk mail at the office.

And he's never been tempted to shave his sack time.

"I don't build a sleep deficit," Bomba says emphatically. "I absolutely refuse to do it."