Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates has taken CEOs and tech entrepreneurs to task for bragging about getting minimal sleep, claiming it maximises productivity. An interview with Vanity Fair ended with her calling the approach “so dumb.” She confided that she gets between seven and eight hours of sleep at night.

In the interview, French Gates identified the negative side of sleep deprivation, adding that “some of us didn’t want to be around them! Let’s be honest!” referring to CEOs, in her opinion, who advocate for a destructive and performative deprivation of sleep.

Physicians support this, highlighting the need for sufficient rest for optimal health. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults aged 18 to 60 years should sleep for at least seven hours in a day.

Extreme sleep deprivation causes critical health conditions such as diseases of the heart and kidneys, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression.

French Gates’ comments come as a growing number of prominent figures, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, have acknowledged the importance of sleep and are prioritising it in their own lives.

“I’ve tried [to sleep] less… Even though I’m awake more hours, I get less done,” Musk told CNBC last year. “And the brain pain level is bad if I get less than six hours [of sleep].”

Research shows that getting enough sleep is essential for peak physical and mental performance, and sleep deprivation can even mimic the effects of being intoxicated.

According to CDC, insufficient sleep impairs cognitive performance, which can increase the likelihood of motor vehicle and other transportation accidents, industrial accidents, medical errors, and loss of work productivity that could affect the wider community.

Washington, United:

American philanthropist Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, endorsed President Joe Biden on Thursday for November’s US election, arguing that he is the best candidate for women.

“I’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate before. But this year’s election stands to be so enormously consequential for women and families that, this time, I can’t stay quiet,” she said on X.

“Women deserve a leader who cares about the issues they face and is committed to protecting their safety, their health, their economic power, their reproductive rights, and their ability to freely and fully participate in a functioning democracy.”

French Gates, who recently stepped down as president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the contrast between Biden and his Republican opponent Donald Trump “couldn’t be greater, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.” 

“I will be voting for President Biden,” she concluded.

Reproductive rights have been an effective political cudgel for Democrats in the two years since the conservative-leaning Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that made abortion a constitutionally protected right. 

A comfortable majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in most cases, according to extensive polling, and around half of states have measures in place to protect access.

The issue has been a major theme of the election campaign, with Biden supporting women’s right to choose and Trump failing to stake out a clear-cut position beyond pride in appointing three of the justices who struck down Roe v Wade.

French Gates announced in May that she would be using her $12.5 billion fortune to help “women and families,” making a first payment of $1 billion  toward the cause. 

She said the Supreme Court ruling on abortion had prompted her to devote herself to defending women’s rights.

Former New York mayor and businessman Mike Bloomberg also said on Thursday he was endorsing Biden and had donated $19 million to his campaign, according to the Washington Post.

Trump, meanwhile, received high-profile support from investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who announced they had each donated $1 million toward the Republican candidate’s election bid.

And businessman Timothy Mellon contributed $50 million to a Trump-supporting super PAC — an organization that pools campaign contributions, according to a New York Times report on Thursday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Melinda French Gates recently opened up about her divorce from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Speaking to TIME magazine, Ms Gates revealed she initially separated from him before ultimately deciding to proceed with the divorce in 2021.

Melinda Gates talked about being able to navigate this process privately, especially while balancing responsibilities like caring for their children. In her words, “To be able to do that in private while I’m still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you’re going to disentangle your life – thank God.”

Melinda French Gates described her divorce as an “awful” and “horrible thing”. However, “it has been wonderful” since then, she said. “I live in a neighbourhood. Now, I can walk to little stores. I can walk to the drugstore, I can walk to a restaurant,” adding that she “absolutely loves it”.

The divorce, finalised in August 2021 after 27 years of marriage, led her to step away from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organisation synonymous with global impact and philanthropy.

“I thought a lot about my three children. But I certainly thought about the effect on the foundation. Those are the three biggest buckets: me, the kids, and the foundation. And I wanted to make sure that when we came through it to the other side – all of those pieces were intact,” Melinda French Gates shared during the interview.

Following her exit from the foundation, Ms Gates redirected her efforts towards new initiatives aimed at empowering women on a global scale. She recently announced a billion-dollar funding initiative designed to promote women’s rights and economic empowerment.

Regarding Bill Gates’ association with Jeffrey Epstein, Ms Gates said she did not like that he would meet the sex offender. “I made that clear to him. I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time. I wanted to see who this man was and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door,” she said.