Mike Pettine occasionally slept in a closet while with the Jets

By Will Gibson

Who needs sleep, and how much? NFL teams, the Cleveland Browns among them, are spending more and more time and energy to figure out the answer to those questions. Jenny Vrentas of The MMQB — whose Andy Benoit watched film with Browns left tackle Joe Thomas — did a deep dive into how sleep science is transforming the NFL.

You may be familiar with some of the benchmarks for a good night’s sleep — aim for at least eight hours, sleep in the darkest dark possible, limit mobile device usage before bed. Vrentas’ column dives into that and more, explaining not just how sleep works but how a lack of it can affect one’s productivity. Catching too few Z’s can slow reaction times, reduce testosterone levels, and inhibit learning and memory.

One anecdote she uses to illustrate her point involves Browns head coach Mike Pettine sleeping in a closet. When he was with the New York Jets, Pettine would sometimes work so deep into the night that he opted to sleep at work rather than go home. It wasn’t much sleep, and Pettine says he felt the effects on game days.

Another Brown familiar with the boost that good, healthy, lengthy sleep provides is cornerback Johnson Bademosi.

So who needs sleep? Judging by the product on the field and the rumored dissent off it this year, another hour or two a night couldn’t hurt the Browns.

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