At 1pm every afternoon, the hustle and bustle of Real Madrid's Valdebebas training ground grinds to a halt and the facility resembles a ghost town.
A silence descends over the complex for the following two hours as players and staff close their eyes and drift into a siesta before waking and resuming their day - but they're not sleeping on the job.
The scene is a window into football's relentless pursuit of marginal gains as clubs across Europe turn to technology, purpose-built facilities and sleep experts to recharge their multi-million pound assets and gain a competitive advantage.
You snooze, you win
Tennis great Roger Federer and basketball star LeBron James are both advocates of sleeping for upwards of 10 hours per night and research shows the performance benefits of proper rest for athletes.
A study by Stanford University sleep expert Cheri Mah showed basketball players who increased their sleep duration to those levels improved shot accuracy by 9% in tests and recorded improved sprint and reaction times.
Take recovery for granted and the risks are great. One restless night is enough to weaken the immune system and increase the risk of illness. Sleep poorly for 64 hours or more and strength and power is reduced.
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