Updated on: Oct 25, 2025 12:30 pm IST
Cristiano Ronaldo, at 40, exemplifies elite fitness through consistent sleep patterns, emphasizing their importance for longevity in football.
Football is a highly demanding sport. It takes a lot out of a player, both physically and mentally. This is probably one of the reasons that we don’t often see footballers having a peak that lasts more than 5-6 years. Additionally, when compared to other sports, football professionals tend to retire at an earlier age.
Cristiano Ronaldo during a match.(REUTERS)
There is always an exception to the norm. When it comes to football and the longevity of a player. Cristiano Ronaldo is the biggest exception when it comes to football. Even at the age of 40, the Portuguese superstar is an embodiment of supreme fitness and mental steadiness, letting the fans often wander about the secret behind it.
In a recent video shared by WHOOP on their X account, Ronaldo is seen talking about the reason behind his elite fitness. “Sleep is the most important tool that I have. To be consistent with the time that I go to bed and that I wake up. I mean, like example, I go to bed around 11-12 and I wake up around 8:30. It is my routine. It is the most important thing that we have probably in terms of healthspan,” said Ronaldo.
Why does Ronaldo stress on a consistent sleep cycle?
The statement from Ronaldo stresses the importance of sleep. His framing points to the fact that sleep is not a passive downtime; it is actually an active advantage. This point from CR7 aligns with the broader conversation he had with the WHOOP founder, Will Ahmed, on the company’s podcast. In the conversation, Ronaldo threaded together sleep, recovery, and discipline as the pillars of staying elite into his late 30s and 40s. The conversation shows why he prioritises a consistent window rather than just chasing a raw hour-count. In his words, anchoring when he goes to bed and when he wakes up is the real compounding habit.
For athletes, the emphasis on timing matters. Consistent sleep and wake time stabilise the circadian rhythms, which in turn shape when they hit deep slow-wave sleep and REM. That is the physiology and the science behind the ‘tool’ that Ronaldo uses to stay fit.
The takeaway from the conversation is that if someone’s goal is longevity, then he or she must start by protecting one thing that is controllable – a fixed and consistent sleep cycle. Ronaldo’s version just happens to be calibrated to a GOAT’s career. As he puts it, sleep is not just a luxury; it’s the tool to expand the horizons of elite-level performance over an extended period of time.
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