Messi, Alcaraz, and the World's Best Athletes All Do This Before Sleep

What do Lionel Messi, Carlos Alcaraz, and the riders of Team Visma have in common? Beyond world-class talent, elite training blocks, and relentless competitive drive — they all wear a small adhesive strip across their nose before they sleep.

It's not a coincidence. The world's highest-performing athletes have quietly adopted nasal strips as a non-negotiable part of their recovery protocol. And the science behind why they do it is more compelling than most people realize.

Why Elite Athletes Obsess Over Sleep Quality (Not Just Sleep Duration)

Sleep research in high-performance sport has shifted dramatically in the past decade. The old advice — "get 8 hours" — has been replaced by a more nuanced understanding: it's not just how long you sleep, it's how well.

The deepest, most restorative sleep stages — slow-wave sleep and REM — are where the real recovery happens. Growth hormone is released. Muscles repair. Neural pathways consolidate motor learning. Miss these stages and you can sleep 9 hours and still wake up feeling beaten.

The #1 disruptor of deep sleep stages? Mouth breathing.

When you breathe through your mouth during sleep, your body triggers a mild stress response. CO2 levels drop slightly. Cortisol edges up. The nervous system never fully downregulates. You cycle through lighter sleep stages more frequently — and the deep recovery phases get cut short.

What Nasal Breathing Does Differently

Nasal breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system — the "rest and digest" mode that your body needs to fully recover. The nasal passages filter, humidify, and warm incoming air. They produce nitric oxide — a powerful vasodilator that improves oxygen delivery throughout the body.

Studies on athletes have shown that nasal breathing during sleep is associated with:

• Higher HRV (heart rate variability) — the gold standard metric for recovery quality
• More time in slow-wave and REM sleep stages
• Lower resting heart rate during sleep
• Reduced cortisol upon waking
• Faster cognitive recovery between training sessions

The problem is that most people — even athletes — unconsciously switch to mouth breathing at some point during the night, typically around the 2–3 hour mark when sleep pressure is high and muscle tone drops.

Why Nasal Strips Are Part of the Solution

The nasal passages have a natural resistance to airflow. For many people, that resistance is high enough that when muscle tone drops during sleep, the path of least resistance becomes the mouth.

HiStrips work by gently lifting and widening the external nasal valve — the main point of resistance — increasing nasal airflow by up to 31%. This makes nasal breathing easier to sustain throughout the night, even when muscle tone is at its lowest.

The result is fewer switches to mouth breathing, more time in deep sleep, and waking up genuinely recovered rather than technically rested.

The Protocol Used by Elite Athletes

The full recovery breathing protocol used by top-level athletes like those on Team Visma typically combines three elements:

1. HiStrips nasal strip — worn every night to maximize nasal airflow
2. Mouth tape — a gentle cotton tape across the lips that prevents the mouth from falling open during sleep
3. Sleep environment optimization — cool room (16–19°C), complete darkness, minimal noise

Together, these create the conditions for consistently deep, restorative sleep — night after night, training block after training block.

The Competitive Advantage Nobody Talks About

Amateur athletes spend thousands on VO2 max testing, lactate threshold sessions, and performance nutrition. Professional athletes do all of that — plus they obsess over sleep quality in a way that most amateurs overlook entirely.

HiStrips cost less per night than a cup of coffee. They require zero effort. And the cumulative effect of better sleep — compounded across 90-day training blocks — is measurable in the data and visible in performance.

Messi doesn't need a nasal strip to be great. But he uses one anyway. Because at the highest level, the margins that matter are the ones that compound over time.

Ready to sleep like an elite athlete? Shop HiStrips Sleep Collection →