SHERIDAN, WYOMING – June 17, 2026 – As the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across North America, attention naturally lands on tactics, fitness levels, and squad depth. But there's a quieter factor working its way into how top teams prepare: sleep. The tournament's format brings long travel distances between host cities, shifting time zones, varying climates, and tight turnaround windows between matches, all of which add extra strain on players' bodies. That pressure has pushed national teams and individual athletes to pay closer attention to recovery, and one sign of just how seriously the topic is now being taken comes from the sleepwear industry itself, where dozens of professional footballers have quietly built sleep into their performance routines.
Recovery Becomes Part of the Game Plan
Roughly 120 professional footballers around the world currently wear sleepwear from the Swiss-Swedish brand Dagsmejan, and at least one Dagsmejan user is on the roster of 22 of the national teams competing in this year's World Cup. That's a notable footprint for a single sleepwear brand inside one tournament, and it points to a broader shift in how elite sport approaches the hours players spend off the field, not just the ones spent on it.
Andreas Lenzhofer, co-founder of Dagsmejan, has described how performance analysis in top-level football used to center almost entirely on training, diet, and equipment, with recovery treated as a secondary concern. According to Lenzhofer, that balance has shifted considerably in recent years, with sleep now viewed as a core part of physical and mental recovery rather than an afterthought.
Why Temperature Matters More Than You'd Think
The science behind sleep quality has been studied for decades, but it carries added weight in professional sport, where athletes regularly deal with heavy physical loads, frequent travel, late kickoff times, and short recovery windows between matches. That combination becomes especially relevant during tournaments that stretch across several weeks, where the quality of nightly rest can quietly compound into a real competitive factor.
One area getting particular attention is thermoregulation. Body temperature plays a meaningful role in how the body initiates and sustains deep sleep, which is why athletes and sport organizations have increasingly focused on the conditions surrounding where and how they sleep, including the materials and fabrics worn at night. Lenzhofer has noted that the conversation around sleep in elite sport has matured noticeably over the past several years, moving from a general wellbeing talking point to a structured part of recovery planning for serious athletes.
A Trend That Reaches Beyond the Pitch
What's happening in professional football reflects something bigger than the sport itself. Interest in sleep quality, recovery, and temperature management has been growing steadily outside elite athletics too, both within health research and in everyday routines. While conversations about training intensity and competition performance tend to dominate, more people are now asking a related question: how do you actually maintain performance and energy between periods of exertion, whether that's a tournament, a workweek, or just daily life? Sleep increasingly comes up as one of the central answers.
Quick Questions About Sleep and Recovery at the World Cup
Q: How many professional footballers use Dagsmejan sleepwear? A: Around 120 professional players worldwide currently wear the brand's sleepwear.
Q: How many World Cup 2026 squads include a Dagsmejan user? A: At least 22 of the national teams competing in the tournament have a player who uses Dagsmejan.
Q: Why does temperature matter for sleep? A: Body temperature directly affects how the body falls into and sustains deep sleep, making thermoregulation a key factor in recovery quality.
Q: Is this trend limited to professional athletes? A: No, interest in sleep quality and recovery has been growing well beyond elite sport, including in general health research and everyday routines.
Readers curious about the science behind recovery sleepwear can find more detail at Dagsmejan.