The Woman Who Helps NBA Stars To Sleep: Stop Having Showers Just Before Bed! Dr Cheri Mah
Dr Cheri Mah (guest), Steven Bartlett (host), Narrator, Steven Bartlett (host)
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Dr Cheri Mah and Steven Bartlett, The Woman Who Helps NBA Stars To Sleep: Stop Having Showers Just Before Bed! Dr Cheri Mah explores sleep Doctor Reveals Game-Changing Habits That Transform Elite Performance Everywhere Sleep physician and performance expert Dr. Cheri Mah explains how optimizing sleep can measurably enhance reaction time, accuracy, injury risk, decision-making and career longevity for both elite athletes and CEOs.
Sleep Doctor Reveals Game-Changing Habits That Transform Elite Performance Everywhere
Sleep physician and performance expert Dr. Cheri Mah explains how optimizing sleep can measurably enhance reaction time, accuracy, injury risk, decision-making and career longevity for both elite athletes and CEOs.
Drawing on research with NBA, NFL, MLB teams and individual stars like Andre Iguodala, she shows that even small increases in sleep duration (15–30 minutes) can produce outsized gains in performance and cognition.
Mah details practical strategies for sleep environment, timing of showers and food, smart napping (including the “nappuccino”), travel and jet lag management, racing-mind routines, and how to treat sleep as the “beginning of tomorrow.”
She also addresses misconceptions about needing less sleep, the reality of sleep debt, links to injury, emotional regulation, weight and mental health, and why sleep should be seen as a foundational competitive advantage rather than a sacrifice.
Key Takeaways
Treat Sleep as a Non‑Negotiable Performance Tool, Not a Luxury
Mah argues that if you don’t sleep your best, you cannot be your best. ...
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Small Increases in Sleep Time Yield Outsized Cognitive and Academic Gains
You don’t need a dramatic overhaul to see benefits. ...
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Optimize Your Sleep Environment and Evening Routine Like an Athlete
Make your bedroom ‘cave‑like’: dark (blackout curtains/eye mask), quiet (earplugs or white noise), cool (ideally about 16–20°C / 60–67°F), and comfortable. ...
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Use Food, Alcohol and Caffeine Strategically Around Bedtime
Avoid large, heavy, fried, fatty, tomato-based or highly sugary meals and alcohol close to bedtime—they fragment sleep, raise heart rate, and worsen sleep quality. ...
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Leverage Smart Napping and the ‘Nappuccino’ Without Harming Night Sleep
Short daytime naps (20–30 minutes) confined to light sleep can boost alertness and performance without causing heavy grogginess or impairing night sleep. ...
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Manage Sleep Debt Proactively; One Good Night Doesn’t Fully Reset You
Mah supports the concept of sleep debt: if you need 8 hours and get 6, you accumulate 2 hours of debt per night. ...
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Address Sleep Disorders and Jet Lag to Protect Health and Career Longevity
Snoring, unrefreshing sleep, daytime fatigue, early awakenings and bed-partner reports of gasping or pauses in breathing are red flags for sleep apnea, which affects roughly one in four adults 30–70 and is treatable (often with CPAP). ...
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Notable Quotes
“If you don’t sleep your best, you will not be your best.”
— Dr. Cheri Mah
“When you experience what it feels like to be well‑rested, you never want to go back to getting insufficient sleep.”
— Dr. Cheri Mah
“Over three seasons, I was 76 to 86% correct on accurately predicting when an NBA team will be at highest risk of losing, strictly based on the schedule.”
— Dr. Cheri Mah
“It changed everything for him… for the first time, he was able to improve beyond what he already thought was his best.”
— Dr. Cheri Mah (on Andre Iguodala)
“Think of sleep as not the end of today, it’s the beginning of tomorrow.”
— Dr. Cheri Mah
Questions Answered in This Episode
In your NBA Schedule Alert work, which specific schedule patterns (e.g. back‑to‑backs, specific time-zone shifts) turned out to be most harmful to team performance, and have any leagues actually modified their scheduling based on your findings?
Sleep physician and performance expert Dr. ...
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For an ambitious professional who can only realistically add about 30–45 minutes of sleep on weeknights, which single practice from your protocol (environment, shower timing, food, wind‑down, naps) would you prioritize first to get the biggest cognitive ROI?
Drawing on research with NBA, NFL, MLB teams and individual stars like Andre Iguodala, she shows that even small increases in sleep duration (15–30 minutes) can produce outsized gains in performance and cognition.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given how powerful the Andre Iguodala and Ryan Jensen case studies are, why do you think some teams and front offices still underinvest in sleep science compared with strength, conditioning, or nutrition—and what misconceptions do they hold?
Mah details practical strategies for sleep environment, timing of showers and food, smart napping (including the “nappuccino”), travel and jet lag management, racing-mind routines, and how to treat sleep as the “beginning of tomorrow.”
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You mentioned that nutrition and sleep science is still in its infancy; based on what we know so far, what would a ‘sleep‑optimized’ day of eating look like for an athlete playing an evening game compared to a CEO with a critical morning board meeting?
She also addresses misconceptions about needing less sleep, the reality of sleep debt, links to injury, emotional regulation, weight and mental health, and why sleep should be seen as a foundational competitive advantage rather than a sacrifice.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If policymakers fully embraced the evidence on sleep and cognition, what concrete changes would you most like to see in school start times, shift‑work regulations, and air-travel scheduling over the next decade?
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Transcript Preview
I was 86% correct on accurately predicting when an NBA team will be at highest risk of losing, strictly based on their sleep.
Oh, gosh.
Yes. And just 15 or 30 minutes can make a difference. So let's dive into just some very practical strategies to get the best sleep possible.
Dr. Sherine Ma is a renowned sleep doctor and performance expert, whose sleep optimization research has enhanced the careers of CEOs, as well as athletes in the NFL, MLB, and Formula 1, and has provided life-changing expertise to companies like Nike, Under Armour, and Google.
For my elite athletes that I work with, sufficient sleep, it's a game-changer. For example, we saw a 12% faster reaction time, a 9% improvement in free throws, and a 4% increase in faster sprint time. And when you experience what it feels like to be well-rested, you never wanna go back to getting insufficient sleep. And it doesn't have to be these big jumps.
I'd love to dig into that.
Okay.
So I have a shower, then I get straight into bed after. Is that good or bad?
Tweak the timing of your shower and your hot bath to just an hour or two before bed. It's hard to grasp how much of a difference this can make in your life.
What about sex? Does it have an impact on your sleep?
Ooh. Okay, so-
Is there anything that I can eat before bed that won't disrupt my sleep, but will get rid of the hunger?
There's a pre-sleep meal. For example, cereal and milk.
Cereal?
And the reason why is because-
And then I read this fascinating word, nappuccino.
Yes (laughs) . This is a useful tool if you're a working professional and y- you need a little boost in alertness and performance. What you do is ...
The Diary of a CEO raffle is about to close. Anyone that subscribes to The Diary of a CEO before we hit seven million subscribers, which is probably gonna be in a couple of days' time, you will be included in the raffle. And on the day we hit seven million subscribers, we are giving away a lot of money-can't-buy prizes to all of you. So hit the subscribe button, get in before seven million, and I'll announce the prizes and the winners in the comments below when we hit seven million subscribers. Dr. Ma, what is it you do, and why is it so important, in your mind, that you do it?
Great question. So I am a sleep physician, um, but I spend a lot of my time and career trying to educate and, and advocate for people to prioritize sleep, right, this fascinating process that each of us does every single night, and arguably is about a third of our lives, but many individuals don't do this very well, or they, you know, sacrifice it and overlook this area. I very much believe if you don't sleep your best, you will not be your best. Or counter to that is if you, your s- if your sleep is best, you will be at your best. And what that means, if I unpack that a little bit more, is we often are sacrificing our sleep. We're under-slept. We often don't have good-quality sleep. It ... We're very reactive to our sleep at nighttime, and it's the last thing that we think of at the end of the day when we wrap everything up. Um, and that's arguably not gonna put ourselves up to be the best we can be in the following day, right? And for my elite athletes that I work with, when you actually get sufficient sleep, you have practices that you plan into your day, and you actually are more proactive with that, it can be a game-changer. And for them, when it comes to performance on the field, that can be the difference of a 9% improvement in free throw shots. It can mean reacting 12% faster. And so until you experience that, it sometimes is hard to grasp how much of a difference this can make in your life, but it is one of the foundations that are, will impact everything about how you function, your mood, how you feel, and ultimately perform the following day. If I could offer you, or y- yes, you specifically, Stephen, if I could offer you something that's free and healthy and safe that's going to help you think more clearly, make better decisions, be in a better mood, be more productive and efficient, would you want it?
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