Trump's Early AM Twitter Tirade Highlights Dislike for Sleep

Donald Trump's early morning Twitter tirade about former Miss Universe Alicia Machado highlighted the real estate mogul's penchant for social media and distaste for sleep.

Trump posted a tweet at 3:20 a.m. and then another at 5:14 a.m., again five minutes later, at 5:30 a.m. and then straight through the morning.

Clinton took aim at his early-morning Twitter rant, posting her own message later in the morning: "What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?"

In one of the tweets, Trump called Machado, who he referred to as "Alicia M," disgusting. Machado has said Trump repeatedly called her "Miss Piggy" among other insults and Clinton invoked her name and story at the first debate.

Trump is not shy about his sleeping habits, and defended them in a subsequent tweet this afternoon:

He has repeatedly said that he only sleeps about four or five hours a night, and has spun it as an advantage.

At a rally in Springfield, Illinois, in Nov. 2015, it came up when he was talking about how he doesn't "like being ripped off."

"We're being ripped off and I wouldn't sleep, you know I'm not a big sleeper, like three hours, four hours, I toss and turn, I think, I wanna find out what's going on," he said.

In an interview with CNN during the campaign, he said it was a sign of his happiness, saying that he only sleeps for four or five hours "because I love life.

"I love doing this. I love doing my business. I love life! If you don't love life you probably -- I have friends, they sleep 12 hours a day but they're all unhappy people," he told CNN.

His lack of sleep goes well past his presidential campaign, however.

He even listed it as one of the 10 ways he urged readers to "Think Like a Billionaire" in his 2004 book of the same title.

"Don't sleep any more than you have to," he wrote as rule number three. "I usually sleep about four hours per night. I'm in bed by 1 a.m. and up to read the newspapers at 5 a.m. That's all I need, and it give me a competitive edge. I have friends who are successful and sleep ten hours a night, and I ask them, 'How can you compete against people like me if I sleep only four hours?' It rarely can be done. No matter how brilliant you are, there's not enough time in the day."