Famous Nappers 6.5: Novak Djokovic
He puts on his pants one leg a time...then goes on and wins 24 majors
A quick search found a wonderful article by Tony Fairbairn regarding Novak’s sleep habits. Quoting the champ:
Sleep is extremely important. Probably more important than any other recovery routines that you could do…I’m a pretty deep sleeper, so to say. I don’t wake up during the night…I like to get at least 8.5 hours of sleep a night. I think that helps a lot with recovery, feeling good, feeling fresh.
Here is a guy who gets 8+ hours of high quality, deep, restorative sleep. He also has what is likely an incredibly busy schedule: traveling to and playing in weekslong tournaments; constant practices, workouts, recoveries; sponsor obligations, side businesses; and maybe even some time for his family. Novak is hardly lazy, to keep such a packed schedule. But does that leave room for naps?
Do I get naps? I get, yeah, if you want to call them maybe short naps, maybe some meditation stuff that I do during the day that it’s just kind of a quick reset of energy, 10, 15 minutes, 30 minutes.
This begs the question: why would a well-rested machine take precious time out of his outrageously busy day for a nap? Don’t ask me — let him tell you in one of the five languages he speaks:
Sometimes it’s just five minutes breathing exercises or something that will just recharge me and allow me to have a bit more energy for the rest of the day.
Mic drop.
Stars. They’re just like us.