In this hybrid vlog‑style video, professional basketball player Elijah Bryant explains why sleep is the most critical recovery tool for athletes, describing his personal sleep hygiene practices and the systems he uses before games. He emphasizes leaving the phone outside the bedroom, maintaining consistent bed‑wake times, keeping the room cool, and using hotel stays to avoid home distractions. Bryant links deep sleep to growth‑hormone release and cites scientific findings that insufficient sleep impairs reaction time and shooting accuracy. After outlining these routines, he provides a live‑game commentary of a match against Partizan in Sofia, Bulgaria, highlighting key plays, his own statistics (11 points, 9 rebounds, perfect free‑throw shooting), and the team’s 4‑win streak. The video concludes with his “2‑to‑1” self‑assessment (two things he did well, one area for improvement) and teases upcoming sleep hacks and a trip to Athens for a hyper‑baric chamber session. Throughout, Bryant blends instructional advice with personal anecdotes and game analysis, aiming to give viewers actionable sleep strategies while showcasing his professional performance.
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Sleep is the most important recovery tool in your bag as an athlete, more important than the hyperbaric chamber, red light, chili pad, compression boots. Because if you're not maximizing your sleep, all that other stuff is useless. I'm going to take you through all my sleep routines and sleep systems that I do before a game, as well as show you what I do to prepare for our game against Partizan. So let's go. Obviously playing at home, it's a lot easier to have better sleep hygiene or sleep routines. And as of right now, we're in the hotel. So as you've seen in the past in Turkey, in past 4 years, I stayed in a lot of hotels. And particularly today after shootaround, we stay in a hotel to allow us to have better sleep routine. So for me specifically, having 2 kids at home, my routines can get messed up. So staying in a hotel helps with that, but also sometimes traffic can be a problem. If you're a hooper and you're not maximizing prioritizing your sleep or learning how to create systems and routines around your sleep hygiene, then you're losing. And honestly, that's been me for the past few years. I have a great morning routine, but my sleep hygiene has been piss poor. Now, for me, one of the many reasons why it hasn't been the best is because I get home and I want to relax, and now it's my time to scroll or my time to see what family's doing or watch the shows that I want to watch. And what I've found, the number one hack to sleep better, is to just leave your phone outside of your room. If you're going to watch a movie, if you're going to watch a show, if you're going to game, watch it before you get in bed. When you get in bed, leave your phone in another room. So today we played Partizan, and to be quite honest, it's probably going to be a home game for them because Belgrade, Serbia is around 3 hours away from Sofia, Bulgaria. So it's gonna be a very fun game, and they're a very talented team but dealing with some injuries right now. They just recently signed Bruno Fernando, who's playing Madrid. They have one of my former teammates, Tyreek Jones. They just signed Nick Koulethas. They have another guy I played with, Shake Milton, who's injured. They have Jabari Parker, who I know as well. But very talented team coached by one of the best coaches in Europe, Coach Obradovich. So it's not going to be an easy game, and I think the biggest thing for us is just to focus on applying pressure to their guards because they don't necessarily have a point guard right now on their team. So in these type of games, are missing some players, you know some other players are going to step up and also be super ultra aggressive, beginning to find some rhythm. So guys like Washington and Sterling Brown. And I actually played with Sterling Brown, Milwaukee Summer League. So now I'm just watching. I know him pretty well, you know, great shooter, drive right. So just seeing what the last shots that he's made, so where his confidence is at. Sleep is your body's recharging time, just like you plug your phone in. So when you train and when you play, your body breaks down, but when you sleep, your body repairs itself. So when you get into deep sleep, your body produces growth hormone. And what is growth hormone? Growth hormone is basically your body sending out a signal— muscles repair, bones recover, everything refresh. So if you're not sleeping, you're missing out on all those recovery benefits. And the crazy part about it is you might saying, oh, I function well off of 5 hours of sleep or 4 hours of sleep. That might be true, but based on the science, it literally says that your reaction time slows, your shot accuracy is worse, and you can almost become impaired like a drunk person. Now, to be honest, I don't know everything on sleep, but I'm just sharing my personal opinion from the years of playing professional basketball and what I have used to make my sleep hygiene better. And better yet, later on in the video, I'm going to share some hacks with you that you can use to fall asleep faster, fall asleep for longer, and just get better sleep.
Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to Sofia, Bulgaria, where you join us at the Arena 8888 Sofia, home venue of the standings leaders Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv. My goodness, the fans breaking into full voice as the opening tip is up and controlled by the home team. More ball as the good Look at the bucket from Sterling Brown. Sees the 3-pointer poked away from behind by Elijah Bryant. Terrific steal, and now it's a 2-on-2 opportunity. Vanya Marinkovic playing with a foul. Partizan's first 2-point lead of the game as the floater gets the shooter's roll. Elijah Bryant with an instant riposte to it. Vanya Marinkovic also almost bagged the steal. Malcolm passes out to Elijah Bryant, and Elijah Bryant lands from long range. With the rebound, Jabari Parker, short corner, has it blocked by Dan-Arturo. On the floor is the high-line one from Partizan. Beautiful 3-pointer from Elijah Bryant. Down low, Tyreke Jones spinning away, blocked by Dan-Arturo. The marquee matchup to the 4 once again. Dwayne Washington. So Elijah Bryant remains perfect from the free throw line. Elijah Bryant securing another rebound, his 6th of the game, to go along with 11 points and 2 helpers. He finds Dwayne Washington in the corner, he lets it fly. Good look at the basket. He can't get it to fall. So they've elected to dribble it out or play it out. And HaPoel IBI Tel Aviv make it 4 wins in a row.
We got the win. Great win against a great team in Partizan. Obviously, we talked about the coach, talked about the players. It was a very good win for us, a quality win. The gym was basically sold out with all Partizan fans, so it was a really good environment. And I promise to share some other sleep hacks with you guys. Number 1 would be going to bed and waking up at the same time. So your body has an internal clock. So no matter if it's an off day, no matter if it's a really hard day, try to go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time every single day. And the second thing is, is try to sleep in a cool room. Cool room allows your body to relax and fall asleep easier. And as always, at the end of these videos, we do our 2-to-1. 2 things I did well and 1 thing I can get better at. I think the first thing I did well was just play more aggressive, be more assertive at the end. It's okay if you make a mistake. I think I was playing a little bit too reserved, you know, not trying to make a mistake, but more so like trying to get a feel of the game and allow other people to, you know, feel involved. And the second thing I did well was rebound. I think I rebounded the ball really well. That's a big emphasis I wanted to have and try to impact the game that's not necessarily scoring. I think I had 9 rebounds tonight. And then one thing I could work on is being better at giving EGBs, not just in this game but all the other games. EGBs are energy-giving behaviors— high fives, cheering for my teammates, stuff like that can go a long way, not only for your team but for yourself too. I think there's science back behind it. I think when the Warriors were going through their run is that they charted how many, you know, high fives they gave each other and stuff like that, and that can impact winning. So As always, thanks for watching, and I actually got to leave here pretty soon to head to Athens, Greece to play Olympiacos. I'm gonna get in the hyperbaric chamber, but as always, faith plus consistency, love.
