Some 'superheroes' seem able to exist on very little sleep -- are they fooling themselves?

Does it only take five hours of sleep to fuel the juggle? We recently posted about one woman who rises at 5 a.m. and often ends her day at midnight. She needs all that time to squeeze in a day of work and caring for her family.

It's a familiar timeline for many of us. Can't fit everything into your day? Just make the day longer!

Some superheroes seem to survive this way indefinitely. An ad-agency founder profiled in the latest issue of Inc., Jordan Zimmerman, rises at 3:30 a.m., works out before work, takes three of his four kids to school, works flat-out all day, gets home for dinner and bedtime with the family and then works until midnight. During speeches to college students, he sometimes asks them why they like to sleep late on weekends. 'Why would you sleep when that's your time to live?' he asks. 'Sleeping isn't living. You sleep when you die.'

In other cases, entire companies assume a no-sleep culture. In James B. Stewart's 2005 book 'DisneyWar,' Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was said to sleep only a few hours every night, reporting to his office by 5 a.m. He sometimes scheduled major meetings for 7 a.m. on Sunday, Mr. Stewart reported. Not surprisingly, Mr. Katzenberg insisted that all the meeting rooms be stocked with Diet Coke.

People now sleep about 20% less than they did a century ago, the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation estimates. But as I have written, most people need seven to nine hours of sleep. Without it, we snack or drink caffeine or exercise to compensate. And we get sleepy. The foundation's 2008 poll of 1,000 Americans found 36% are drowsy or fall asleep when they are driving; 29% become very sleepy at work, and 20% have lost interest in sex because they are just too tired. Researchers blamed part of the problem on overlong work hours.

Readers, are you one of these high-energy, no-sleep jugglers? Can some people actuallyfunction this way indefinitely, leaving the rest of us lagging behind the evolutionary curve?

Sue Shellenbarger

• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中词汇)
• survive [sə´vaiv] vt.幸存；残存 (初中词汇)
• culture [´kʌltʃə] n.修养；文化；饲养 (初中词汇)
• foundation [faun´deiʃən] n.建立；基金；地基 (初中词汇)
• actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中词汇)
• function [´fʌŋkʃən] n.机能；职责 vi.活动 (初中词汇)
• squeeze [skwi:z] v.&n.压榨，榨取 (高中词汇)
• founder [´faundə] n.奠基者 v.陷落 (高中词汇)
• studio [´stju:diəu] n.画室；照相室 (高中词汇)
• sleepy [´sli:pi] a.困的，想睡的 (高中词汇)
• drowsy [´drauzi] a.困倦的；催眠的 (高中词汇)
• indefinitely [in´defənitli] ad.模糊地；无限期地 (四级词汇)
• jordan [´dʒɔ:dn] n.约旦 (四级词汇)
• bedtime [´bedtaim] n.就寝时间 (四级词汇)
• compensate [´kɔmpenseit] v.赔偿；补偿；酬报 (四级词汇)
• surprisingly [sə´praiziŋli] ad.惊人地；意外地 (六级词汇)