On Wednesday local time, Fortune published an interview with Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Hassabis revealed that he has very little sleep and divides his awake time into two work periods.

When talking about the duration of sleep, Hassabis said, "I do try to sleep 6 hours, but my sleep habits are a bit unusual. I can basically manage during the day." He believes that sleeping less than 6 hours is harmful to the brain.

Hassabis co-founded DeepMind in 2010, which was later acquired by Google. He was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on protein structure prediction. He tries to fill his office hours with meetings during the day, with almost no gaps in between.

After returning home to spend time with his family and having dinner, he starts his second workday at 10 PM, continuing until 4 AM. During this time, he mainly focuses on thinking and more creative research work. He admitted that although it's hard to imagine having creativity at 4 AM, he actually becomes fully alert around 1 AM. This schedule has been maintained for about ten years.

Hassabis' high-intensity schedule is similar to that of many tech tycoons. For example, Musk has said that sleeping around 6 hours is most efficient; while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said he averages about 8 hours of sleep.