The day-to-day routine of Formula 1 drivers is no walk in the park. Not only do they have to travel to a different country week in and out, undergo grueling training regimes, and go to their sim facilities to practice, but they also have to fulfill different sponsor requirements throughout the year. Sleep, in most cases, might be tough to come by for people who are on the road as much as these drivers.

Constantly battling jet lag, fatigue, and the sheer mental pressure that the sport exerts on you, there’s a lot for these drivers to handle. So when Daniel Ricciardo opened up about his sleep routine during a podcast, you can be sure that it offered a unique insight into the lives of these superstars.

Daniel Ricciardo reveals his “dark” sleep routine

Different people have different sleep routines. Some like a bit of light, while others prefer complete darkness. Some can’t stand a small disturbance in terms of noise, while others require something constantly running in the background. The former Red Bull driver is someone who prefers no light while having a podcast running in the background.

“I love noise. I hate light, but I love noise. So the room has to be really dark and I’ll put on a podcast. I like UFC so I’ll put on like a press conference or like a UFC podcast or like an MMA podcast. I’ll fall asleep to noise and normally like talking as opposed to music. I’ll put a sleep timer on it.”

He then revealed something truly bizarre that might throw some people off. “I’m also a bit of a sicko, like I like true crime stuff.; I might fall asleep to some dark stuff as well.” Knowing that this might unsettle people, Ricciardo tried his best to keep this a secret before he revealed this on the podcast with Matt and Tommy. “I try not to tell too many people, because they’ll think I’ve got issues.” 

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However, Riccardo in the past has confessed that he suffers nightmares and also spoke about how he recovers from them.

Daniel Ricciardo’s nightmares and special sleeping arrangements

Thanks to this, he is also susceptible to bad dreams. However, since the AlphaTauri driver is always on the road, he’ll get any chance to sleep that he gets, and doesn’t mind getting the occasional nightmare. “I just want to sleep. Sleep is important especially with our calendar it’s just like, you can just bank sleep, bank it. If I get bad dreams, just give me the hours. I’ll wake up and realize it’s not real.” 

He revealed that thanks to this habit, he’s able to get “7 hours (of sleep) on an average,” and he does everything possible to get the maximum amount of sleep that he can. This includes a special bed and pillow arrangement as well. “I sleep on the very end of the bed. I don’t have a side preference. 5-6ths of the bed is unmade. I’m in the little slither on the end. I just sleep right on the edge.”

He added, “I want something (pillow) pretty soft. I’m sleeping with half my head on it and half off it. I’m sleeping on the end of pillows and its soft. I’m not really using much pillow.”

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While true crime podcasts to go sleep might not be everyone’s cup of tea if it helps the “high-performance athlete” sleep well, hey who are we to judge? Would you listen to true crime podcasts in your sleep? Let us know down below.