A to Z : ET CETERA : Only Wimps Need 8 Hours

Planning to catch up on your rest this weekend? Or do you insist (yawn!) that you have better things to do than sleep?

You’re in good company:

* Napoleon had a reputation for getting by only a few hours of sleep a night, especially while waging one of his many wars to conquer Europe.

* President Kennedy would work in the Oval Office until 2 or 3 a.m. and rise at 7:30, with daily one-hour naps.

* President Clinton tries to get by on five hours and a nap, but he says he knows his limit is about 12 hours of work a day.

* Winston Churchill slept little and sometimes ridiculed those who slept more.

* Another British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, kept up the tradition. She sleeps three to four hours a night.

* “Today” show anchor Bryant Gumbel, who has to be up and out by 4 a.m., is able to stay up late without feeling tired on the set. “I’m lucky,” he says. “I only need four hours of sleep.”

* The artist Salvador Dali felt the same way. When overtired, he used to sit holding a spoon over a tin plate on the floor. When he fell asleep, he’d drop the spoon, waking himself up, claiming to be completely refreshed.

* Leonardo da Vinci decided to sleep 15 minutes every four hours, a total of an hour and a half each day. After five months he gave up--reporting that he felt all tingly around the head and was biting his tongue frequently--and went back to his regular four hours.