How have athletes described sleeping away from home? Sue Bird discussed a small pillow and a familiar film during hotel wakefulness, Lewis Hamilton described a foldout pillow kept in his hotel room and falling asleep on flights, and Jenson Button described trying to sleep on destination time. These separate interviews do not establish a shared protocol or an effective jet-lag treatment.
| Person | Setting | Described detail | Source and date | Full profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sue Bird | Hotel, waking in the night | A small travel pillow; a familiar movie on an iPad at low volume | SELF, July 23, 2021; conversation in late April | Sue Bird |
| Lewis Hamilton | Hotel room; flights | A foldout travel pillow in his room; often asleep before takeoff | GQ, September 22, 2023; conversation in June | Lewis Hamilton |
| Jenson Button | Flights | Trying to sleep as he would at the destination | Condé Nast Traveller, October 6, 2023 | Jenson Button |
Sue Bird: familiar things on a wakeful hotel night
In SELF’s July 23, 2021 interview, from a conversation in late April, Bird said she was picky about pillows because of a sensitive neck. She had recently started traveling with a small one in case the hotel pillows were poor. She did not name a model for the travel pillow.
She said she rarely had trouble falling asleep, but some nights she woke and stayed awake for a while. Soothing music or sleep podcasts were options she mentioned. On the road, she said, she might put on a movie she had seen many times on her iPad at very low volume, which she described as basically noise.
SELF’s page includes shopping links, and in the same interview Bird disclosed her involvement with Mendi. Supplement and product claims from the rest of that interview sit outside this travel account and are not repeated here.
Lewis Hamilton: a foldout pillow in the room, sleep on the flight
Hamilton spoke with GQ during a June evening in Manhattan, in an interview published September 22, 2023. He said he used to travel with a pillow himself but now had someone else take it. He had bought it online and described it as a little travel thing that folds out. It was always in his room, he said, because hotel pillows were not always the best. He did not name the product.
The flight detail is separate. Asked whether he always slept on the plane, he said most often, and that he was usually falling asleep before the plane took off. When awake, he said, he was reading more on flights.
The questionnaire opens with his IWC Schaffhausen watch partnership, which frames the conversation.
Jenson Button: attempting to sleep on destination time
Asked by Condé Nast Traveller in October 2023 how he handled jet lag, Button said he tried to sleep on the plane just as he would be sleeping where he was travelling to. He added that he was lucky to be able to sleep anywhere. That is his own account of what he tried, not a tested method.
The interview was tied to his Hackett campaign and his Coachbuilt whisky business.
A separate historical note comes from Formula 1’s July 30, 2015 Q&A on its own site. There, he listed an eye mask among his travel essentials and said he wanted a hard bed in a hotel, because he hated soft beds. That account is eight years older and does not combine with the 2023 answer into one evening.
Three snapshots, not a travel plan
Bird’s account concerns a hotel night, Button’s 2023 answer concerns a flight, and Hamilton’s covers both, kept apart. They come from different years, publications and commercial settings. None establishes current use, a complete routine or that these choices explain anyone’s results.
These are personal accounts, not recommendations or personalized medical advice. Each full profile above carries its own sources and context. Read more about SleepStacks. Sources checked November 8, 2026.
SELF / Christa Sgobba, 2021-07-23
GQ / Matthew Roberson, 2023-09-22