Following Sleep Apnea Surgery, Well-Rested Napoli Dreaming Of Big 2015
BOSTON (CBS) -- You may notice that Mike Napoli looks a little different as the Red Sox prepare for the 2015 season.
Sure, the hefty beard is back after a quick absence at the end of the 2014 season. But he didn't shave off the whiskers that had graced his face since the 2013 run to the World Series to get rid of whatever bad mojo it had last year. There was a much bigger purpose behind the late-season grooming.
And it had everything to do with getting a good night's sleep, something that Napoli hadn't enjoyed in nearly a decade.
Struck with a bad case of sleep apnea, which affects one's ability to breath during a night's slumber, the man nicknamed "Nap" would often wake up in the middle of the night anywhere from 40 to 100 times.
"I was trying to sleep but I wasn't getting real sleep. I would lay in bed for hours in the day, then go to the field and get treatment and seriously sleep through batting practice," Napoli explained to WBZ-TV's Dan Roche earlier this week in Fort Myers, Florida. "I was restless, waking up and couldn't breathe. It was pretty rough."
Earlier in his career, the slugger simply learned to deal with those sleepless nights. It was a struggle, but his youth made up for it. But by the end of last season, the soon-to-be 33-year-old knew it was time for drastic measures.
"I was so used to being like that I just found a way to get through the day… I just did what I could and tried to be productive," he said. "The older I got the tougher it was for me. I tried so many things; CPAP machine, mouth pieces, medicine. But it wasn't really working."
So in late September, the beard was shaved off in preparation for facial reconstruction surgery in November. It was a grueling procedure on his jaw that lasted nearly eight hours (fittingly, the recommended amount of slumber for a good night's sleep) and kept Napoli in intensive care for two days.
The results were not instant. The pain medication he was prescribed made him groggy, and it wasn't until about a month ago that Napoli really started to feel the effects of the surgery.
"It was a brutal process, but I'm good now," he said happily. "I started to realize I had energy and I wasn't in bed all day."
Now he's sleeping like a baby, and it has led to some big changes in his life.
"I start my day early. I wake up at 6 a.m. and I'm staring at my ceiling – it's weird," he said. "I go grab a cup of coffee and start my day."
His energy level is now through the roof, and he's looking to put up monster numbers for the Red Sox as he heads into the final year of his contract. While he knows sleeping better will help, it's still up to him to make the most of it.
"I still have to go out and perform, do my work to my ability. But it think it will help me a lot, just in recovery," he said. "All those bumps and bruises you get during the season, that's the biggest thing."
Napoli had plenty of sleepless nights back in October 2013, roaming the streets of Boston in the wee hours of the morning in the days following the Red Sox championship season and duck boat celebration.
But make no mistake. That had nothing to do with his sleep apnea.
"That was… I wanted to do that," he said with a smile. "I was having fun. We had just won the World Series, so I'd do it all over again."
With some added pop in the lineup around him, and a much more rested Napoli to protect those other big bats, he may get another opportunity to stay up late again this October.
