Elvis Would Sleep for Up to 14 Hours a Day and Wake Up ‘Irritable’ and Confused
Elvis Presley took pills to sleep and stay awake for much of his life. He kept nocturnal hours and relied on prescription medication to regulate his sleep. According to his wife Priscilla, though, Elvis slept for longer than average. She explained that he woke up groggy and confused after hours of sleep.
Priscilla Presley said Elvis would often sleep for over half the day
When Elvis woke up, Priscilla made sure he had a large breakfast ready for him. He often rose long after breakfast hours, though. According to Priscilla, he often didn’t get up until three or four in the afternoon and wouldn’t be fully awake until the early evening.
“Everyone who knew Elvis was aware that it took him at least two or three hours to wake up fully,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “Asking him to make a decision, even a simple one such as what movie he wanted to see that night, was ill-advised.”
She explained that the quantity of sleeping pills he consumed left him confused and foul-tempered for his first several hours awake.
“He was just too groggy and irritable from the sleeping pills, which were causing him to sleep as many as fourteen hours a day,” she wrote. “It seemed only natural for him to take some Dexedrine to wake up.”
Elvis would often sleep through Priscilla’s school days
While Elvis slept late into the afternoon, Priscilla attended high school. She would stay up until five or six in the morning and head to class after meager hours of sleep. Elvis often told her to simply skip classes, but she felt she owed it to her parents to attend. They had only let her move to Memphis to be with him if she promised to dedicate herself to her studies.
“Day after day I drove to school, attended classes til noon, then returned to Graceland to slip back into bed and cuddle next to Elvis, who was still sound asleep,” she wrote. “When he awoke at 3 or 4 p.m., I might never have left his side for all he knew. I was there to give him his usual order of orange juice, a Spanish omelet, home-fried potatoes, a mere two pounds of bacon, and — first and foremost — his black coffee.”
She began to worry about the amount of sleeping pills he took
Priscilla rarely questioned Elvis, but she grew concerned about his sleeping pill usage. She worried he was taking too many.
“I was always concerned about his intake of sleeping pills,” she wrote. “His horror of insomnia, compounded with a family history of compulsive worrying, caused him to down three or four Placidyls, Seconals, Quaaludes, or Tuinals almost every night — and often it was a combination of all four. When I expressed my concern, he just picked up a medical dictionary, always near at hand on his night table.”
Elvis convinced Priscilla he was being safe, and she eventually began taking the pills to manage her late-night hours.
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
