A fellow student asked me a question this morning that I get a lot (at least twice a week, lately): Do I ever sleep?

Yes I sleep at least 7-8 hours a night, or my whole world falls apart. Thanks for asking.

Oh, okay. Sometimes I have to work late, or I'll start writing a song and get kind of obsessive about not going to bed until I finish the lyrics, or I'll go to a concert or an event get home at dawn, or whatever. I'm not a saint.

At Foo Camp, for example, I was just too excited most of the time to get to bed before 2 or 3 in the morning, even though I knew I had to be up early in the morning to work on my movies.

But for the most part, during the week. Sleep is a fundamental requirement that I very rarely compromise.

To those of you operating on less than 8 hours a night, I highly recommend either going to bed earlier or waking up later, depending on your other obligations. It may seem like you're getting less done at first, due to time constraints, but I predict that your productivity will increase by as much as 25% in the short term and as much as 50% in the long term (how it worked out for me).