Get All Access for $5/mo

Elon Musk Says Crack Helps Him Survive on No Sleep Calm down, folks. He was joking.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Getty Images | Bloomberg

Elon Musk isn't sleeping much these days. While he usually pulls in a solid six, it's been "a lot less these days," as he told Twitter followers over the weekend.

To be fair, the founder has a lot going on, from the Tesla crash aftermath, to plans to acquire SolarCity, to sticking a SpaceX rocket landing for the fifth time in seven months.

Yeah, dude's kinda busy.

Related: 10 Times Elon Musk Had the Best Response

So, just how does he stay sharp on so little sleep? The answer isn't rocket science. It's crack cocaine, and "large amounts of it," as the billionaire boss jokingly tweeted back, in a cheeky exchange with fans on the social platform.

Yep, you read that right. Large amounts of crack.

Related: 7 Takeaways in the Success of Elon Musk for Young Entrepreneurs

Obviously the man's kidding, as he's been known to do. In all seriousness, though, he's reportedly not a fan of getting tipsy or stoned. Per Ashlee Vance's biography on Musk (on which Musk closely cooperated with the author), he is as "straight-laced" as they come and only occasionally drinks. He's not known to dabble in mind-altering substances -- not even when he and his college roommates threw "blowout" beer bashes to make ends meet.

"Musk will have the occasional vodka and Diet Coke," Vance writes in the book, "but he's not a big drinker and does not really care for the taste of alcohol." Musk told his biographer of his University of Pennsylvania keggers and then some, "Somebody had to stay sober during these parties. I was paying my own way through college and could make an entire month's rent in one night."

Musk's college housemate, fellow tech entrepreneur Adeo Ressi, now the CEO of the Founder Institute, told Vance: "Elon was the most straight-laced dude you ever met. He never drank. He never did anything. Zero. Literally nothing."

Related: Elon Musk Says We're Likely Living In a Video Game. Are We?

Saturday's surprising tweet wasn't the first time Musk publicly joked about using drugs. He made a crack in 2013 at a Computer History Museum event that he'd have to take them to enjoy kicking back at the beach. "The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst," he said. "It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I'd be super-duper bored. I like high intensity."

In other words, he's high on life, folks. High on life. There's a lesson in that.

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Side Hustle

This Former Starbucks Employee Started a Side Hustle That's Making More Than $70,000 a Month — and He's Not Done Yet

When Tom Saar moved to New York City, he spotted a lucrative business opportunity.

Business News

Is One Company to Blame for Soaring Rental Prices in the U.S.?

The FBI recently raided a major corporate landlord while investigating a rent price-fixing scheme. Here's what we know.

Business News

Amazon Has a Blank Book Problem: Buyers Report Receiving Fakes of Bestselling UFO Book

The book looked fine on the outside, but the inside was out-of-this-world.

Business News

Paramount Leadership Alludes to Layoffs If Merger Does Not Go Through

Paramount is awaiting approval on its merger with Skydance Media from majority shareholder Shari Redstone.

Business News

Microsoft Reportedly Lays Off Over 1,500 Employees in Cloud Sector as Partnership with OpenAI Strengthens

Alphabet also reportedly laid off employees from several teams in Google's cloud unit last week.

Side Hustle

10 Online Side Hustles Proven to Boost Your Bank Account

Even the busiest schedules can accommodate finding a precious few hours to create a profitable online venture — something that many are already mastering.