I read in an article recently about Prince's odd sleeping habits (this may have been only earlier in his career, it was dated 1990) and how he seems to be wide awake all the time, yet nobody ever actually sees him sleep. How does he manage that?! I was wondering if anyone knows about this. Does he actually not sleep? Does he take power-naps? Did he have some kind of sleep training? What does he DO?

Here is the part of the article I'm talking about:

He's simply an
Artist..People that cant understand a person that makes his own hours and is often "Driven" to create and finish new ideas ...wont "Get it"

he drops whizz

If Prince has looks as healthy and does all that he does at his age, shows no sign of slowing down maybe we all need to try some of his "Sleeping Habits". Bored Huh?

I'm sure he does it's just for 3-4 hours or so.

I usually don't get to sleep til about 3 or 4am and sometimes I have to get up at 8 the next morning.

Me and Prince are insomniacs

Yeah I've wondered about that as well.

Where does he get all this energy from? Hard to believe it's all coming from only 3,4 hrs sleep a night (I have 6,7 hrs and it doesn't do dick for me). And now he's gonna play 21 nights in a row, and later on those nights perform in a aftershow (several, not all I guess) and he's almost 50, and, also remarkable, he still looks freakin' great for his age. I think it's almost unbelievable how he can do all that, and already for so many years, and in between still finds time to be a sex god as well ... amazing!

Is he on a special diet or on vitamines or power drinks may be because I can't recall hearing he is a big eater. Don't even know if he works out a lot to stay fit. So yeah, where does all this unstoppable energy come from?

some people only need a few hours of sleep

A friend of a friend who was a concierge at the Holiday Inn in Fresno, Ca. said that when Prince was in town for the Jam of the Year tour, she met up with him with his bodyguard in the elevator. She ask him if he was enjoying his stay and asked if he needed anything. He told her everything was fine but that he wanted them to cover his windows so no light would get in so he could sleep. I think she said he asked for foil to cover the windows. I guess that says one thing, he sleeps during the day.

Klick

BombFunk said:

easy: the devine speeddealer from heaven: God

Let Prince have 1 or 2 kids, and believe me, his sleeping habits would definetly change!!!!!

Having been working on a book about his studio habits and many UPTOWN projects, I've noticed thru work orders and interviews with bandmembers and engineers that he sleeps in the morning. He usually works pretty late, and burns out the others that are working with him. Associates understand that working for the man is a 24 hour a day job because he could, at any hour of the morning, call you to drop by the studio, or call you because he is heading to your place in a limo with a tape to play for you.

The man doesn't really understand boundaries! lol

drfunko said:

Dr Funko (if that is your real name), where did you find this article?

I just saw a video of Maceo talking about Prince calling him a genius and saying "the guy never sleeps, when does he sleep?" I'll try to find it.

BombFunk said:

A Faustian bargain, perhaps?


I wonder what he traded?

Is this a joke?

wlcm2thdwn said:

would that be the Australian interview?

Klick

I never believed the sleeping myths because i'm a workaholic too and without some good rest i'm useless. I think it's a bragging point for some people to say they only get a few hours sleep. And also, being a nightowl, musician myself, people tend to think I never sleep. I just sleep different hours and i'm an insomniac and if i don't get enough sleep i can feel it and see it, and i can see it in people who don't sleep right, look at all the people with dead looking baggy eyes just from daily stress and not resting right. So I think the bragging thing is a myth. I get 3or 4 hours of sleep frequently but not on purpose, sometimes my erratic sleep habits screw things up and i definitely feel it. I assume Prince sleeps in the slow part of days, the morns up by early afternoon and ready to work through the night.

He's a vampire

mozfonky said:

night owl here myself and a musician... many of my friends are the same way... my brother who lived with me for some time swears to people that i never sleep... but really, it just appears that way... some of us can stay up for two or three days straight if we're writing and recording songs... then we crash. there's at least one day a week when i don't sleep. four or five days a week when i get about 4-5 hours sleep. whatever's left of the week, that's when i crash... when i wake up, i start the whole cycle over again. people often want to say prince must be on drugs to be able to stay up and work hours on end, but like a previous poster mentioned, when you're in the middle of creating something, you're "driven" to keep going until the "new idea" is fleshed out if not finished completely. peace.

.
[Edited 7/23/07 3:32am]

there are plenty of people who have the "you can sleep when you're dead" way of things. i have a friend who always complains about how much time he wastes sleeping. *shrug* whatever turns you on.
[Edited 7/23/07 5:14am]

Remember, Prince had seizures as a child, maybe his neurons don't fire like those of average people

Prince is afforded the luxury of money. he doesnt need to cook for himself, shop for himself, drive anywhere, worry about bills, mow his lawn, wash his dishes, clean his house. He simply does what he likes to do. thats why he appears not to sleep and looks so great for his age.. it aint genetic.. it aint surgery.. it aint some freakish genius trait.. its coz he can pay somebody else to do the chores we all have to do, which in time wear us out.


people say, how can he play a show for two hours and then hit a club for an aftershow. Its easy.. some guys are shovelling 10 ton of shit 6 days a week for 8/9 hours a day, then they drive themselves home and then make their dinner then clean their house then worry about bills then go shopping for food. Then do the same the next day - perhaps with 2 or 3 kids hanging around their necks Prince singing for a few hours ples into insignificance
[Edited 7/23/07 9:01am]

I'm EXACTLY the same way. I'm such a vampire..its crazy and what I'm doing mostly is writing poetry at all hours of the night. Then when everyone wakes up to get their day going, I get up drink a cup of coffee, smoke a cig, do my excersises, check my email, then crash and sleep till lunch. I can run on just a few hours of sleep. But then sometimes I could sleep forever!!!

I think I can understand that "driven" mindset to finish an idea in a single sitting. I know what that's like. Interesting to hear about him asking for foil on his windows, though.

And for the person who asked, I found the article on http://princetext.tripod.com/
There's a ton of other interviews and articles about him there.
[Edited 8/24/07 23:07pm]

IT'S CALLED SPEED.

klick2me said:

Vampire

When U do something that U love and make millions doing it U can do the same thing. Michael Jordan, Diddy, Prince - People say the same thing about them...they never sleep. The rest of us have a 9-5 that we like but it isn't waht we love. We work their hours at their pay and we don't have house keepers, 24 hr child care, tailors at will, chef at call...the list goes on and on. This is why we need more sleep....

prime said:

That certainly has a great deal to do with it. As a musician, I've cut corners and done everythig to give myself the best shot and I never have near enough time and energy (or money) to put into my music. Real life will not give me much of a chance. I'd like to see Prince Have to hold down a 40 hour a week job, rely on public transportation, go to school fulltime and still be able to practice music, then I'll compare my workrate to his.

haha... yeah, great topic!

I know from experience (not me in particular) that some people can get along well with only a few hours of sleep. My dad travels all over (mostly Asia) 4 his business, so his internal clock works differently with the time changes he has to deal with. Usually at night, he'll be up until maybe 8-9, then get up at midnight and crawl back into bed around 5. He works on a weird schedule, but it seems to work 4 him.

I figure with Prince, though, that he just takes cat naps whenever he feels like he has to recharge. I'm thinking really back around the time of the "1999" album, cuz word has it that he came up with "Little Red Corvette" during a series of cat naps he had (the first one being in Lisa's car).
I'm not sure if he still runs on the schedule these days. I think when Mayte had him go thru "studio rehab", she made him sleep a lot more to keep him from working all the time.

In all honesty, I don't know what his sleep schedule is like these days.

I do know that music is like his caffeine in the morning. During one interview during Musicology, he had just woken up and when they were taking a break, he told them to start playing his music cuz that's what wakes him up. You figure, if someone lives 4 his art the way he does, it lives in him and it gives him unlimited energy 2 do with whatever he pleases.

wlcm2thdwn said:

Interesting you would say that, this theory had ran across my mind a time or two, jokingly of course...