In our Sleeping With… series, we ask people from different career paths, backgrounds, and stages of life how they make sleep magic happen.
As Sue Bird gears up for her fifth Olympics appearance—and begins her quest for a record-setting fifth-straight gold in Tokyo—she’s learned a few things along the way about how to prep her body to perform for big games, when stress and expectations undoubtedly run high.
“A lot of taking care of my body means making sure I’m getting enough sleep, and recovery is a big part of that,” Bird told SELF in late April at the start of her WNBA training camp in Seattle. “The better sleep you get, the better recovered you’ll be.”
For Bird, the pandemic sparked a change in her nightly routine, encouraging her to try earlier bedtimes—at 9:30 p.m., for instance, the night before we spoke—simply because, well, there wasn’t a whole lot else to do that late. Turning in earlier, she realized, helped make sure she could log enough sleep to feel refreshed in the morning, the time of day she considers her “chill time,” where she can drink her coffee, send some emails, and ease into her scheduled tasks. “I don’t like to rush into my day,” she says.
That’s a good thing, because these days, her days are certainly filled. Along with continuing to turn in record-breaking performances as a guard for the Seattle Storm—just before the WNBA’s season paused for the Olympics, she became the first player in league history to tally 3,000 assists—and preparing for the Tokyo Games, she also recently launched the digital media company TOGETHXR along with athletes Alex Morgan, Simone Manuel, and Chloe Kim. The company aims for more inclusive storytelling in sport and greater coverage of the next generation of female athletes.
“The four of us—myself, Alex, Simone, and Chloe—we saw a need for this in the media world,” she says. “I think we're getting a lot of amazing stories out, and that was the purpose, to get the stories out that don't always get the love they deserve.”
A social-justice activist off the court, Bird, who’s one half of one of the most well-known power couples in sports—her fiancée is soccer star Megan Rapinoe—is a mentor on the court as well. After competing in her first Games in 2004, she’s now one of the veterans on Team USA, which will include six athletes making their Olympic debuts. She’s also been chosen by fellow Team USA athletes to serve as a flag bearer for the opening ceremony in Tokyo.
While the pressure to perform at such a high level and lead a team can be tricky, Bird is taking her fifth Olympics appearance in stride, and relying on all that she’s learned about her body over the years to help her power to gold. She sat down with SELF to share how her nighttime routine helps fuel the top-notch recovery she needs to win.
Supplements aid my sleep (and recovery).
I always drink Cherrish cherry juice. It has anti-inflammatory properties, so it’s good for my recovery. Sometimes I’ll actually make a smoothie that has some fruits or yogurt in it, and of course a little of that cherry juice. That’s like my dessert for the evening, and it’s one of the last things I have before I go to sleep.
I’m also involved with a CBD company, Mendi, so depending on how I feel, I might take some gummies, which help with my sleep and recovery. They also have a stick, it’s kind of like a salve, that you can rub on anything that might be bugging you. So maybe that day if my neck felt weird, I'd rub it on my neck, or maybe my low back, and I always put some on my knee—I've just had a long career of knee issues and surgeries, so I always make sure I hit my knee up.
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July 23, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Sue Bird and Her Bedtime Routine: How the Basketball Star Rests and Recovers for the Tokyo Olympics - Self
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