She now gets seven and her mother, who is 80, says she's a much nicer person for it. But there is a horrible smugness about the new refreshed executive. US anthropologist Lionel Tiger says that showing off about your eight hours is classic one-upmanship. This is a tribute to how splendid you are when you are not comatose. Executive sleep indulgence is also fashionably health-conscious.
Bravado is out of fashion in the higher tiers of the workplace.
Of course we're talking about the chattering classes. Working mothers don't have the luxury of sleeping for prestige. But it is not. If sleep is a status symbol, a class system is emerging in which the slumber-rich snuggle down at the expense of their exhausted staff. Amazon's Jeff Bezos does not schedule morning meetings, so he can have a leisurely breakfast with his wife.