What 13 Successful People Do Before Going To Bed

In his autobiography, Franklin outlined a schedule that would lead him to "moral perfection." In this ideal schedule, Franklin asked himself the same self-improvement question every night: "What good have I done today?"

He described his other rituals before bed as "put things in their places, supper, music or diversion or conversation, and examination of the day."

Franklin tracked his progress on self-improvement daily.

Sandberg might work for a tech company, but she knows when to unplug.

Sandberg tells Jefferson Graham at USAToday that it's "painful," but she turns her phone off at night so that she "won't get woken up."

"I check my e-mail the first thing in the morning, and the last thing at night," says Sandberg.

The British prime minister kept to a similar daily routine no matter what happened. In the book "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work," author Mason Currey recorded Churchill's schedule:

Around 5 p.m., the prime minister would drink a weak whisky and soda before taking a nap for an hour and a half. Churchill said this siesta, or short nap, allowed him to work for 1.5 days every 24 hours. When he woke, he bathed and got ready for dinner.

At 8 p.m., Churchill would eat dinner, which was often followed by drinks and cigars well past midnight.

Due to his irregular sleep schedule, Churchill was said to hold War Cabinet meetings in his bath.

"It’s not any different than a bedtime routine," says King as recorded in Lisa Rogak's book "Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King."

"I brush my teeth, I wash my hands. Why would anybody wash their hands before they go to bed? I don’t know. And the pillows are supposed to be pointed a certain way. The open side of the pillowcase is supposed to be pointed in toward the other side of the bed. I don’t know why."

Sleep advocate Huffington recommends banning iPads, Kindles, laptops, and any other electronics from the bedroom to unwind.

Instead, she likes to read the old-fashioned way, "real books."

Author Robert Boynton asked Lewis about his ideal writing routine, as recorded in the book "The New New Journalism":

"Left to my own devices, with no family, I'd start writing at 7 p.m. and stop at 4 a.m.," says Lewis. "That is the way I used to write. I liked to get ahead of everybody. I'd think to myself, 'I'm starting tomorrow's workday, tonight!' Late nights are wonderfully tranquil. No phone calls, no interruptions. I like the feeling of knowing that nobody is trying to reach me."

Desai, a former Google product director and current partner at InterWest Partners, says that staying up is a habit of his. Desai tells Lydia Dishman at Fast Company that he likes to pick one project per night and doesn't go to bed until the project is done.

"During the day most of my time is spent in meetings with entrepreneurs, and the only time I can find alone to do work that requires some concentration is when the rest of the household is asleep," he says.

As a magazine editor, White preferred to work on her fiction writing in the early morning hours and switch to magazine editing and blogging at night.

"My craziest trick is that I regularly do my work standing up at a rolling butcher block counter in my kitchen. If I were to work sitting down, I’d fall asleep," White told Dishman at Fast Company. "I know it sounds awful, but I think of it as if I’m tending bar in the evening — a bar of ideas. And I always keep the kitchen TV on so it doesn’t seem too lonely. I drink several espressos at night, which really helps."

The Microsoft billionaire told the Seattle Times: "I read an hour almost every night. It's part of falling asleep."

He enjoys "deeply informative and beautifully written" books (in June he released a list of six books he recommends) and his reading topics range from healthcare to climate change to business and politics.

Gates says he considers himself a very fast reader, despite never taking a speed-reading course.

"My bedroom is my sanctuary," the fashion designer told Fortune in 2006. "It's like a refuge, and it's where I do a fair amount of designing — at least conceptually if not literally."

She said staffers send her stuff at home, "and I always read it at night — the only time when seven people aren't coming to me at once," Fortune reported.

Gascoigne takes a 20-minute walk every evening to allow total disengagement from his work before turning off the lights.

"This is a wind down period, and allows me to evaluate the day’s work, think about the greater challenges, gradually stop thinking about work, and reach a state of tiredness," he writes in a blog post.

Before retiring for the night, Chenault says he likes to write down the top three things he wants to accomplish the next day. This helps him prioritize first thing the next morning.

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