UConn Basketball Star Paige Bueckers Does This One Stretch Before She Goes to Bed

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In SELF’s Sleeping With… series, we ask people from different career paths, backgrounds, and stages of life how they make sleep magic happen.

At just 23 years old, Paige Bueckers has already cemented herself as a force in women’s basketball: She’s the fastest player in UConn history to reach 2,000 career points; she was the first freshman to nab the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy—and, come next month, she’s widely projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft.

But so far, one honor has eluded Bueckers: the NCAA title. The Minnesota native came to UConn with her heart set on winning a national championship, but while her Huskies have consistently ranked among the most formidable teams in the NCAA, they haven’t been able to grab that top spot.

In a sense, though, the continued striving has brought the team closer together: “Players, coaches, support staff, training staff, we’re all very close,” Bueckers tells SELF in an interview over Zoom in February. “When you’re going through something with somebody else, it makes it where you can lean on each other for strength, for guidance, through good times and bad times. They’re always there for you.”

Win or lose during her final March Madness attempt—the Huskies will tip off for the first time at this year’s tournament on March 22—Bueckers is taking comfort in one thing right now: Knowing what comes next. “It’s like a weight lifted off your shoulders,” she says.

Five years after she joined the Huskies in 2020, she says the “plan” is to move on, even though she technically has one season of eligibility left (due to an ACL tear that sidelined her for the entirety of the 2022-2023 season). At roughly this time last year, there was way more uncertainty with her path: Bueckers was widely expected to make ’23-’24 her last season, then sent shock waves through the basketball world when she revealed at a senior-night ceremony in February 2024 that she had decided to stay at UConn another year, as ESPN reported.

“Part of me wanting to stay was me missing a season and a half due to injuries, so wanting to make up for that, get a season back,” Bueckers says. Now, however, she’s ready to turn the page. “I’ve been here for five years. It’s been a long time, longer than the normal four-year college career, and so I felt like the time was right,” she explains. “I’ve had an amazing time here at UConn, an amazing journey. It’s grown me so much as a person, as a player. I’ve enjoyed the relationships, experiences, the bonds. But at some point, the journey has to come to an end, and the next chapter awaits.”

While Bueckers will miss her teammates and the broader Huskies family, she says she is also eager to continue learning and growing in the WNBA among the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Sabrina Ionescu, A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, and other stars. “As a little kid, I went to Minnesota Lynx games, dreaming to be in their shoes, dreaming to be in the WNBA. I’m definitely not there yet, but God willing, that’s where I want to be,” she says. “Having that opportunity to play in a league that I dreamt of being in, [along] with players that I look up to, it makes you really excited for the future.”

Bueckers may be one of the biggest names in women’s college basketball (and soon, the WNBA), but she comes across as chill and down-to-earth—and those traits are reflected in her no-fuss hair and skin care routine. In fact, Bueckers says, she primarily relies on tried-and-tested classics to stay fresh amid the sweat-soaked conditions of the basketball court—stuff that’s readily available at your local CVS, Rite-Aid, or Walgreens. Recently, she even partnered with personal care brand CeraVe on a new campaign to promote the brand’s line of hydrating shampoos and conditioners.

When you have the hyper-regimented schedule of an athlete, after all, “having an easy-to-stick-to routine that doesn’t have too many steps really helps a lot,” Bueckers says. Read on to learn more about her nighttime regimen (including how she preps her hair for those signature face-framing French braids).

My hair is on the greasier side, so shampooing and conditioning is essential.

I definitely like to get a shower in because I drain my hair a lot when it comes to basketball. Between the braids, the coloring [Bueckers has been dyeing her naturally light brown hair blond since she was in eighth grade, as reported by Allure], the sweat, I just want to make sure it’s as healthy as possible, so the CeraVe Gentle Hydrating Shampoo and Gentle Hydrating Conditioner are very important in trying to undo all that I do to it with basketball. Plus, I feel like taking a shower is also just very relaxing!

But you also don’t want to overdo it and shampoo and condition every day, because that kind of cancels the benefits out. I have specific wash days so I can make sure I’m doing everything I need to take care of my hair. I would say I wash it about four times a week.

Coloring and braiding can also lead to breakage, so outside of washes, hair and scalp masks work as well. Stuff like that, I think, helps with my hair health.

When it comes to skin care, I pretty much just keep it short and sweet with cleanser, moisturizer, and lotion.

Obviously, a lot of sweat gets into your pores when you’re practicing or working out, so skin care can, again, help undo the damage. My skin tends to be dry anyway, so making sure I’m moisturized is extremely important. When I shower, I have the CeraVe Foaming Cleanser and the CeraVe Acne Control Cleanser in there with me. Then, after I get out, I use the Cerave Daily Moisturizing Lotion and the CeraVe Facial Moisturizing Lotion to get rid of my dry skin and try to prevent that in the future as much as possible.

CeraVe

Foaming Facial Cleanser

CeraVe

Daily Moisturizing Lotion (19 oz.)

CeraVe

PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion

I always get an extra hit of protein right before I go to sleep.

I drink a protein shake right before bed to get a little bit of fueling. Chocolate is probably my favorite flavor. Sleeping on that and having that muscle recovery happen overnight is crucial for me.

Then I give my muscles a little more TLC.

Before bed, I do the legs-up-the-wall stretch. I find laying my legs vertically against the wall is good for blood flow. Sometimes I’ll also put on my NormaTec boots to help my muscles recover or do Pilates or yoga or other kinds of stretching to have that muscle boost.

I do a little reading.

I have about four devotionals that I read every single night, then I pray. I like the Psalms and the proverbs. I would say I get a lot out of those. It’s hard for me to read a lot of regular books during the season, especially with school, so I pretty much just stick to the devotionals and bits and pieces from the Bible.

I actually am a person who falls asleep with the TV on.

Usually when I get in bed, I kind of catch a second wind, so I have to find a way to recalm myself. I try to get off my screens as much as possible as I’m going to sleep or at least use my blue-light glasses, but sometimes I will watch a show as a way of winding down. Then, once I start to feel myself getting tired again, I usually take off my glasses, turn it off, and shut my eyes and go to bed.

I just finished Defending Jacob, which is on Apple TV, and now I’m watching This Is Us. I’m on season 3, and I think it’s pretty good. Defending Jacob was more of a criminal drama kind of show, action-packed, so I needed a calm, heart-warming, cheesy rom-com to follow that up.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.