Sleepless political leaders
06-03-2013
Anyone who knows anything about politics understands that part of being a politician is losing sleep, whether it is due to the weight of responsibility and the resultant stress or simply the number of hours you have to work in the day, being a politician means lack of sleep.
There are a number of political leaders who have been famous insomniacs, surviving on incredibly limited sleep throughout their political career.
Bill Clinton claimed that he never slept more than five hours a night throughout his eight years as American president, often working throughout the night.
Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister in the 1980s went one better than Bill, she averaged only four hours a night and famously once said that “sleep is for wimps”.
Another political insomniac was Abraham Lincoln who was well known for talking long walks during the middle of the night due to his inability to sleep.
Keeping it in the family, the soon to be retired US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said that the first thing she wants to do when she steps down from her post is to “sleep in”, a desire that many political leaders can probably sympathise with.
So next time you see your leader on TV, look for bags under their eyes.
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