Preview: It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India. However, it was even  more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid marathoner (in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of  us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away ), the question came as  to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age. “

The above is an excerpt from a 2009 article – linked below – about the unexpected death – due to massive heart attack – of Rajan Das, then SAP India CEO, after a Gym Workout.

The article titled “What killed SAP CEO Ranjan Das and lessons for corporate India” analyzes the late CEO’s lifestyle and warns of the need to give our bodies enough rest, as we push ourselves to do more, to achieve our goals.

I’ve shared the link to it below, to alert those who may not know, to the dangers of not sleeping long enough.

Let me note, however, that contrary to what this article reports as research based medical recommendations, I’ve personally thrived quite well with 4 to 5 hours of sleep since my teens.

I’ve tried sleeping longer, but often with little success. My body clock just won’t let me sleep up to 7 hours (at least not at a stretch) even if I’d worked 24 hours.

It would appear that we all have different biological systems. So I may struggle to do that 7 hour sleep that seems to be the standard medical recommendation.

Having said that, the tips in this article reinforce what I’ve known about how to let my body recover when I push it hard like I do.

I hope you find it useful reading.

Read full article:

What killed SAP CEO Ranjan Das and lessons for corporate India.