In his 16th season, approaching 34 years old, LeBron James is still going strong, outlasting nearly all of his contemporaries.
James reportedly spends seven figures on his body care , from diet to exercise to advanced recovery methods. But the most crucial element of his recovery routine may be the most straightforward: sleep.
James and Mike Mancias, his trainer, recently joined Tim Ferriss on his podcast to talk about James' lifestyle, habits, and more. Mancias said that a key to James' longevity is his "never-ending" recovery and that sleep is a crucial component.
James said Mancias is always on his case, asking if James got at least eight to nine hours of sleep.
Mancias explained why sleep is so important and what can help facilitate good sleep.
"The body does recover, and it heals itself while we're asleep, while we reach our REM sleep and our deep sleep," Mancias said.
Mancias said James optimizes his sleep by making sure the temperature of the room is just right and staying off his devices, though James said he used a sleep app called Calm and turns on the "rain on leaves" sound effect to fall asleep.
"Create an environment," Mancias said. "For us, for LeBron, it's always in his hotel room, making sure the temperature is set at a particular — probably 68 to 70 degrees is probably optimal. Making sure the room is completely dark. You have no distractions. Trying to turn off all your electronics, your televisions, your phones, etc. Just turn everything off probably a half hour to 45 minutes before you actually want to go to sleep. And just really committing yourself to that."
James also discussed how important sleep is to his mental and emotional health.
"That's the best way for your body to physically and emotionally be able to recover and get back to 100% as possible," James said.
"Now, will you wake up and feel 100%? There's some days you don't. Some days you feel better than others. But the more and more and more time that you get those eight — if you can get nine, that's amazing. Sometimes I even get 10 hours of sleep," he added.
"I just think that's just the best way to recover," James continued. "I mean, I can do all the training, I can do all the ice bags and the NormaTecs and everything that we do that we have as far as our recovery package while I'm up, but when you get that good sleep, you just wake up and you feel fresh. You don't need no alarm clock. You just feel like 'OK, I can tackle this day at the highest level.'"
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