My Journey Trying the ‘Tom Brady Bed’ Thing
Okay, so I kept hearing about Tom Brady and his crazy focus on sleep. You know, how he goes to bed super early and has this whole system for recovery. I was feeling pretty run down myself, dragging through the afternoons, and figured, hey, if it works for a guy playing football into his 40s, maybe there’s something to it for a regular person like me.
So, I started digging around. What exactly is this “Tom Brady bed” setup? It wasn’t like buying one specific bed named after him. Seemed more about the whole environment and routine. People talked about things like:
- Keeping the room really cool.
- Making it pitch black. No lights.
- Going to bed ridiculously early, like 8:30 or 9 PM.
- Something about special pajamas? Recovery wear?
Alright, I thought, let’s give this a shot. Couldn’t hurt, right? First, I tackled the easy stuff. Blackout curtains. Went online, ordered some thick ones. Putting them up was simple enough. Man, did they make the room dark. Like, cave dark. Felt a bit weird at first.
Then, the temperature. My wife wasn’t thrilled about turning the thermostat way down. We compromised a bit lower than usual, but maybe not Brady-level cold. I also started paying attention to electronics. Made sure the phone was charging across the room, covered any little LED lights on the TV or whatever.
The hardest part? The bedtime. Trying to wind down and be in bed by 9 PM felt totally unnatural. My evenings usually involved watching a show, reading, or just puttering around until 10:30 or 11:00. The first few nights, I just lay there, wide awake, thinking, “This is dumb.” It messed with my social time too, felt like I was missing out on the evening.
I didn’t buy any fancy ‘recovery pajamas’. Seemed a bit much, and honestly, kind of expensive for pajamas. I just stuck to my usual t-shirt and shorts.
So, What Happened?
After about a week of sticking to it (mostly), I did notice some changes. The darkness was great. Once I got used to it, I definitely felt like the sleep I was getting was deeper. Woke up less during the night. The cool room helped too, probably.
The early bedtime was still a struggle. Some nights I managed it, others I slipped back towards 10 PM. But on the nights I did go to bed earlier, even if I didn’t fall asleep right away, waking up felt… easier. Less groggy. Not like magically full of energy, but less like I’d been hit by a truck.
Did it turn me into Tom Brady? Ha, obviously not. I wasn’t suddenly amazing at everything. But implementing some of those ideas, especially the dark room and trying for an earlier bedtime, seemed to genuinely improve my sleep quality. It wasn’t a magic bullet, and the super early bedtime just wasn’t sustainable for my lifestyle long-term.
My takeaway? You don’t need a special “Tom Brady bed.” But focusing on the basics – dark, quiet, cool, and trying to get enough hours – actually makes a difference. I kept the blackout curtains and still try to keep the room cool. The 9 PM bedtime? Not so much. But I am more mindful now about getting to bed earlier than I used to. It was an interesting experiment, trying to live like a super-athlete for a bit, even just in the sleep department.
