'If I'm not out overnight, I really struggle to switch off. It's the excitement for what the next day has in store' - Ollie Pope
Ollie Pope will be a key member of the England squad that will attempt to win back the Ashes this winter.
The England vice-captain and 4CAST member is heading Down Under for an eagerly-awaited series that begins with the first Test in at the WACA in Perth on Friday, November 21.
Ahead of the series we caught up with Ollie for an exclusive chat on The Edge.
In part three, he takes us through his sleep strategy and how to get a good night's rest - even if he's the not-out batter...
Ollie, let's talk about your sleep around Test matches, and how you manage your sleep. How difficult is it to do that when you've got so much going on in your head, especially if you're in the middle of an innings?
Yeah, that's certainly the hardest thing, managing the sleep, especially like you said in the middle of an innings. And especially if you know you're facing the first ball the next morning.
I think for me, yeah, if I'm not out overnight, I actually really struggle to just switch off. It's kind of an excitement for what the next day has got in store.
So it's trying to do as much as I can to combat that. I'd normally take the cherry active gels with some melatonin in to try and help me unwind.
I try and go into the game as best as I can, and a lot of the guys say the same. But once the game starts, depending on how it's going, then that's the time where it's actually just slightly harder to unwind, especially as a batter, if it's going as you want it to.
So it's trying to make sure you've got a bit of a routine to help you through that. And yeah, for me it's the cherry active and the melatonin. And I know a lot of the guys use the same thing.
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