He will Never recover from the shock 49ers San Francisco top player…

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – OCTOBER 23: Brock Purdy #13 of the San Francisco 49ers takes the field prior to an NFL football game between the Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium on October 23, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

On Brock Purdy’s quick recovery, his mental sharpness and the 49ers’ power of sleep
Matt Barrows

The Athletic has live coverage of the Eagles vs 49ers in NFL Week 13 action.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The secrets to Brock Purdy’s speedier-than-expected recovery from elbow surgery: a strict diet, proper hydration and sleep — longer, sounder, more therapeutic sleep than the San Francisco 49ers quarterback ever had gotten before.

“Going into surgery, the doctor was telling me the importance of sleep,” Purdy said. “My teammates, guys who had been through injuries like mine, were telling me, ‘Dude, sleep is going to be your best friend.’ And so I made it a priority. That was No. 1 on my list.”

The result: Purdy, who wasn’t expected to fully recover from his March 10 surgery until early September, beat that projection by nearly a month and a half and hasn’t missed a game this season. Now for Sunday’s showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles, he returns to the scene of his Jan. 29 injury not just with a healthy throwing arm but some of the best statistics — he’s No. 1 in completion percentage, passer rating and average yards per attempt — of any NFL quarterback.

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Purdy emphasized this week that he continued his rigid sleep regimen even after his elbow returned to normal. And a quarterback already known for quickly processing information insists his routine has made him even sharper this season.

To be clear, Purdy’s never been an up-all-night party animal. He’s always been a decidedly grounded and dedicated teammate. But he said he was still in college mode as a rookie last season. He felt the best use of his time was staying up late and cramming as much of that week’s game plan as he could. Because of that, he might have cobbled together seven hours of sleep a night. And that was on a good night.

“Yeah, I retained some information, but only for so long,” he said. “I would hit a wall pretty quickly throughout meetings and stuff. And then it’s dragging on into practice. And then I’d just feel very tired when I’d go home to study. So it was a cycle I got caught up in.”

These days he gets at least nine hours each night using the routine he began back in March. At 6 p.m. he puts on blue light-blocking glasses that help filter out the light from screens that can make it harder to fall asleep or affect the quality of sleep. An hour before bed, he takes a hot shower and puts his phone away. Then he reads — again using blue light-blocking glasses — for an hour in an effort to be asleep by 9 p.m.

“It’s been a night-and-day difference this year, I’d say,” he said. “Starting from the recovery process from when I had surgery all the way up until now. I have energy. I’m attentive during meetings. It’s a real difference, I think.”

Brock Purdy’s quicker-than-expected return from his January elbow injury was boosted by a commitment to sleep. (Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images)
Purdy’s devotion to slumber makes him a good fit on a team that takes rest, recovery and body clocks very seriously.

Up and at ’em? Not always. Last week, in fact, coach Kyle Shanahan encouraged his players to be lazy and sleep in on Monday and Tuesday so they could maximize their slumber before a short-week game in Seattle. This week, they’ll practice earlier than normal on Friday so they can get to Philadelphia before midnight and begin to set themselves to an East Coast body clock. When they board their charter flight Friday afternoon, they’ll be instructed not to nap on the plane — again because the training staff wants their body clocks in sync with Philadelphia time as much as possible even with the game not being the dreaded 10 a.m. body clock start. (Kickoff at Lincoln Financial Field is set for 4:25 p.m. ET, 1:25 p.m. PT.)

Shanahan said no one thought about things like circadian rhythms when he was starting out as a coach but that they’ve gained importance in the last 10 years.

“When you cram everything into (a short week), it might make you feel good, but then the guys are dead for that game and the best way to recover is sleep,” he said before the Seattle Seahawks game. “We’re going to do that as much as we can.”

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The 49ers have plenty of other methods to maximize sleep:

• They have what’s known as a red-light therapy room adjacent to the locker room, something that resembles an intense, high-tech tanning salon. The idea is that red light wavelengths regenerate cells and trigger blood flow, which helps players recover from injuries. It also stimulates the production of melatonin, a hormone that aids sleep.

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk is the team’s red-light guru. He has two, 10-minute sessions a day and even had a red-light room installed in his offseason home in New York. Juszczyk said he notices his energy level wane during long road trips when he has no access to the red-light room. He said players who use the therapy consistently experience better sleep.

Kyle Juszczyk takes advantage of the 49ers’ red-light therapy room and even added one to his offseason home. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
“It’s one thing to say, ‘OK, I got eight or nine hours of sleep last night,’” he said. “But the quality of it really does matter, whether you’re in that deep sleep, that REM (stage). So the red light will help with that.”

• In training camp, the team supplies players with devices that regulate the temperature of their beds. Purdy said he bought one, an Eight Sleep Pod, on his own after his elbow surgery. He said the device pumps water over a mat to keep the bed cool throughout the night and then gradually warms it when he wants to wake up. He said the mat serves as his pre-dawn alarm.

“My phone doesn’t even wake me up. It’s the mat on the bed — it vibrates,” he said. “So when I wake up my body temperature is warm. Long story short, it helps you stay asleep. Instead of tossing and turning you stay asleep. So I end up getting a legit nine hours of good sleep.”

• Early morning cold plunges. The most serious sleepers on the team start their days with a cold-water plunge, which is meant to reduce inflammation and boost circulation. George Kittle said he has a tub that swimmer Michael Phelps sent him after they met at the PGA’s Waste Management Open.

There are no direct links between a pre-dawn plunge in sub-50-degree water and sleep. But Kittle thinks it’s good for circadian rhythm. He said his morning routine consists of three to five minutes in the cold tub, some push-ups and exposure to sunlight, all of which send a signal to the body that the day has begun.

“That’s how I start my day every day. It’s like a cup of coffee,” he said. “It just kind of sets your body up for success. And by the time it’s 8 o’clock (at night), you get in bed, you’re tired and you fall asleep.”

Nick Bosa is the 49ers’ king of sleep. The defensive end’s most impressive statistic this season might be this one: He got 11 1/2 hours of sack time before the 49ers’ Week 10 game in Jacksonville.

“I’m not usually a nap guy,” he said. “Although that week I did take a nap. I slept 2 1/2 hours on Saturday before the game. Then I slept nine hours that same night.”

Nick Bosa recorded 11 1/2 hours of sleep before delivering 1 1/2 sacks against Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars.

It’s probably no coincidence that Bosa seemed to be everywhere against the Jacksonville Jaguars, sacking quarterback Trevor Lawrence 1 1/2 times, forcing a Lawrence fumble and then pressuring him into one of his two interceptions.

Bosa’s Jacksonville slumber was longer than normal, though not by much. Like Purdy, he has a strict routine before bedtime during the season. There’s never any alcohol or even sweets, which can disrupt sleep cycles. He ditches his phone early in the evening, puts on blue light-blocking glasses and is usually asleep by 9 p.m.

He said he likes to get more sleep — usually around 10 hours — the night before a game, especially when he’s on the road. To help with that he’ll chug a Som Sleep drink that’s infused with melatonin.

“I’ll take one of those if I really need a good night’s sleep,” Bosa said. “Sometimes your body’s so tired but you lay in bed and your mind starts thinking about the most trivial things. I think about obligations for the next day even though it serves no purpose for the moment. So (the drink) kind of quiets my mind down.”

Purdy, meanwhile, acknowledges he has only started learning the tricks for better performance and quicker recovery and that he’s not on the same level as the multiyear veterans … yet. After all, he’s still on his rookie contract and he still shares a place with offensive lineman Nick Zakelj.

“Honestly, I’m still learning and getting better with all of it,” Purdy said. “Because you’ve got Juice and Christian (McCaffrey). Those guys — they do everything to a T, the best. And I’m still learning from them. I want to get into the cold plunge. Guys have that set up at their houses. That’s the level I want to eventually get to.”