Did Jeff Bezos say he sleeps eight hours? In a Thrive Global questionnaire published June 8, 2017, he said eight hours makes a big difference for him and that he tries to make it a priority. In a video posted September 20, 2018, he said he goes to bed early, gets up early and sets his first meeting for 10 a.m. Neither source shows what his nights look like today.
Eight hours, in a 2017 questionnaire
The Thrive Global page is a short written Q&A, dated June 8, 2017, and marked as originally published on Medium. Asked how much sleep he needs, Bezos answered: “Eight hours of sleep makes a big difference for me, and I try hard to make that a priority. For me, that’s the needed amount to feel energized and excited.”
Most of the page is about decisions rather than evenings. He says making a small number of key decisions well matters more than making many, and that extra hours gained by shortchanging sleep might be an illusion of productivity. He also says he prefers the word “harmony” to “balance” for work and home. The questionnaire does not give a bedtime or describe what he does before sleep.
Early to bed, slow mornings, in a 2018 interview
The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. posted its conversation with Bezos on its own YouTube channel on September 20, 2018. At about 42:03, David Rubenstein raises meetings before 10 a.m. and eight hours of sleep. From about 42:17, Bezos says he goes to bed early and gets up early, and that he likes to “putter” in the mornings: reading the newspaper, having coffee and time with his children before they go to school. He says that is why his first meeting is at 10.
From about 42:50 he says he gets eight hours and prioritizes it unless he is traveling across time zones, when “sometimes it’s impossible.” He then makes the same decision-quality argument as in the questionnaire. The quotes here come from the video’s automatic captions, which are rough in places, so we have kept to short phrases that are clear in the recording. The upload date is the posting date; the event date is not given on the video page.
What the two accounts cannot show
Both sources describe sleep in terms of work output, not a wind-down routine. Bezos names no bedtime, no clock time for waking and nothing he does in the hour before sleep. The accounts are more than eight years old, and he says himself that travel breaks the pattern. SleepStacks has not verified how long he actually sleeps.
These are personal accounts, not recommendations or personalized medical advice. For other profiles that tie sleep to the working day, see Arianna Huffington and Cal Newport. Read more about SleepStacks. Sources checked November 8, 2026.
Thrive Global / Jeff Bezos questionnaire, 2017-06-08
The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., “Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder, Amazon,” 2018-09-20