Complaining of Pain in Recent Court Appearance... Past Neck Surgery as Well
Working 120 Hours a Week with 6 Hours of Sleep
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, known to work more than 120 hours a week, was not a 'superhuman.' He recently confessed in court that he suffers from insomnia and back pain, revealing health issues.
According to the American daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 5th (local time), Musk stated during a trial in a San Francisco court, "Unfortunately, I did not sleep well last night, so I am not in top condition," and added, "Sorry for fidgeting. My back pain is quite severe."
WSJ reported, "Musk's perseverance has led to superhuman achievements such as landing space rockets and making electric cars sexy, but his 'all-in' work style at age 51 has personally cost him." Musk is famous for working like Superman, managing SpaceX and Tesla, working late into the night, and sleeping very little. Since acquiring Twitter last October, his weekly working hours have dramatically increased from 80 to 120 hours.
Musk confessed, "I sleep, wake up, work, sleep, wake up, work. I do this all week long," adding, "I will have to keep doing this for the time being. There is no choice." When he appeared on the comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) in May 2021, he said he usually goes to bed at 3 a.m., sleeps for six hours, and immediately checks his phone for any new emergencies upon waking.
Recently, he has been living and working at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, providing beds for employees as well. Last month, a fan introduced Musk's 'killer' daily schedule on social media. According to this, Musk testified in court in the morning, attended a Tesla event in Nevada in the evening, and then had a late-night meeting with Tesla's artificial intelligence (AI) team. Musk responded to this post, saying, "And then I returned to Twitter headquarters past midnight. It was a very long day."
Musk has suffered from back and neck pain for years. When a photo showing what appeared to be a new neck injury was released in 2020, rumors about his health issues arose. He revealed that he had undergone two surgeries for neck pain, with the first one failing. He also disclosed that his pain was caused by a spinal injury sustained during a wrestling match with a sumo wrestler at a birthday party hosted by his second wife several years ago.
Earlier, he also admitted to taking the insomnia medication Ambien. In 2018, while struggling to increase Tesla Model 3 production, he jokingly said on social media that his relaxation method was "a little red wine, vintage records, and some Ambien." In response, Ariana Huffington, author of the book The Sleep Revolution and founder of The Huffington Post, sent Musk an open letter, stating, "Humans are not machines. Scientifically, when your mind is foggy, you cannot make good decisions or achieve ambitions to change the world." Musk replied with a tweet at 2:32 a.m., saying, "Ford and Tesla are the only American car companies that can avoid bankruptcy. I just got home from the factory and have no choice."
Meanwhile, on the 3rd, after Musk won a class-action lawsuit filed by investors for violating federal securities laws, his mother, May Musk, congratulated him on Twitter and said, "Now get some sleep."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
