How many hours a night did Teddy Roosevelt sleep?

Answer 1

Some extraordinary folks including Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher have claimed that they can average four hours and still be fully functional, but most of us normal humans can't get by on fewer than 6-7 hours without "sleep debt." That said, sleep needs vary a lot from person to person. If, given an open schedule, you feel best at seven hours/night, you'd probably be fine with only six on a permanent basis. The body will compensate by dropping shifting from light sleep into deep and rem sleep more quickly. So, with that in mind:

I've read several bios of Roosevelt, who preferred to be called Theodore by his friends and family and "TR" by the populous, but none of them makes particular reference to his sleeping habits. A notable gap, since many of his other peculiarities--from speed reading a book before work every morning to drinking a gallon of coffee daily--are pretty well documented. At a guess, based on his heroic coffee consumption and his extremely hectic schedule (before TV and radio, presidents would give whistle-stop speeches, sometimes 8-12 a day), I'd assume he got between four and six hours a night.