On the eve of his greatest triumph, scoring his 100th hundred in front of his adoring Yorkshire public, Geoff Boycott could not sleep.

He tried watching television. When he went to bed he found the hotel room stiflingly hot. An hour before dawn broke over Leeds, Boycott called the night porter to show him how the air conditioning worked.

When he arrived at Headingley, Boycott felt dreadful. Then, 20 minutes into his innings, another feeling washed over him. He felt clear-headed, relaxed, in command. At ten minutes to six he drove Greg Chappell to the boundary and embraced history.

Was this an example of Boycott’s grit taking him through or was his body clock accidentally clicking into gear just when he needed it to?

Nick Littlehales would go for the body clock. For nearly two decades he has been advising athletes on how to sleep. He has never believed in the traditional eight hours’ continuous sleep, arguing it creates unnatural rhythms that mean the least productive time for an office worker is between one and three in the afternoon. Three o’clock on any given Saturday is usually quite important for a sportsman.

Like father, like son: Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. shows off incredible skills

His most famous client is Cristiano Ronaldo. “Anyone who has ever worked with Ronaldo knows that if you have a discussion in the corner of the room, he will come over and ask what you are talking about,” said Littlehales, who worked as Slumberland’s marketing director in Oldham before launching himself as a sleep consultant.

Ronaldo is famed for his attention to detail in his training (AFP)

“I was invited to Real Madrid when Carlo Ancelotti became manager. I was standing on the edge of the training pitch, talking to the Madrid staff, when Ronaldo ran over. He had been training all day and you would have expected him to run straight to the dressing room for a shower but he asked what we were discussing.

“He was interested in what I was trying to do because as an athlete he has always invested in himself. From what I have learned from working with him, Ronaldo is not interested in fad diets, he is not interested in copying others. The only thing he is concerned with is: does it work for him?”

Ronaldo's Champions League century Show all 21 1 /21 Ronaldo's Champions League century Ronaldo's Champions League century Ronaldo's Champions League century Against Bayern Munich, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first ever man to score 100 goals in the Uefa Champions League. Here we recount some of his most memorable. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 1 Ronaldo opened his century of Champions League goals against Debreceni in the third round of qualifying for the competition. He netted a precise tap in off a Wayne Rooney cross off the right flank. AFP/Getty Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 9 An injury time free-kick from 20-yards out against former club Sporting secured a 2-1 win for Manchester united in the 2007 Champions League group stages. Man Utd via Getty Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 12 A towering 26th minute header in the 2008 final gave Manchester United a vital early lead. The Reds went on to beat Chelsea 6-5 in penalties. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 15 Still to this day one of the finest goals in Champions League history. A 35-yard screamer from open play against Porto gave Manchester United the a 3-2 aggregate win in the quarter-finals. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 40 Ronaldo's 90th-minute strike won an engrossing game as the nine-time champions scored twice in the last four minutes to snatch a 3-2 victory. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 43 A cheeky chip over goalkeeper Kenneth Vemeer gave Ronaldo his first Champions league hatrick as Real Madrid thumped Ajax 3-1 in the second group stage match in 2012. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 44 A second chip in two matches- this time Ronaldo latched on to a long ball in the box before sneakily flicking over Borussia Dortmund keeper Roman Widenfeller for the equaliser. AFP/Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 50 50 up in style! Six minutes into the 2012/13 Champions League quarter-finals first leg against Galatasaray, Ronaldo found himself in space to convert Karim Benzema’s cross, putting Madrid one step closer to what was a record 24th European semi-final. AFP/Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 54 Ronaldo and Real Madrid ran riot against Galatasaray in the 2013 group stages. A jaw dropping dribble weaved through the Turkish defence and a low blast past the outstretched hands of Fernando Musrela brought up Ronaldo’s second European hatrick and helped them to a 6-1 win. Getty Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 62 This time Schalke were at the other end of the Ronaldo and Madrid show. He strormed down the centre field, split the defence in two, dribbled the keeper and scored his second of the night. Simple. Bongarts/Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 64 The second leg of the 2013 Champions league round of 16 against Schalke brought about another Ronaldo double. A 30-yard run down the right wing and a shot from the edge of the box gave the keeper no chance. Madrid completed a 9-2 aggregate win over the Germans. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 68 The night Ronaldo won the Champions League for Real Madrid. He lined up for the 120th minute penalty and made no mistake. Real Madrid scored 4 goals in extra time to break Atletico hearts. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 73 Ronaldo's 73rd European goal came at Liverpool. Despite not being as instantly brilliant as some of his others, it was voted the second-best goal in the competition that season and set Real on their way to a comfortable 3-0 win at Anfield. AFP/Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 80 A classic Ronaldo penalty brought up the personal milestone of 80 European goals and helped but was not enough to send Real through to the finals of the Champions League. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 83 After Marcelo’s shot was saved by the keeper, Ronaldo was in the perfect spot for a rebound and in the process brought up his third European hat-trick vs Shaktar in the 2015 Champions League group stages. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 90 An 8 goal drubbing of Malmo gave Ronaldo his fourth European hat-trick. The third goal from the three came in the 59th minute from a low blast through the keepers legs. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 91 With his fourth goal of the match against Malmo, Ronaldo broke the record for the most goals in the group stages of the Champions League (11). Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 92 A game later against Roma, Ronaldo ventured down the left leaving the defence trailing. One quick cut in and a curved right foot shot later and he had his 92nd European goal. Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Ronaldo’s fifth European hat-trick came against Wolfsburg in the 2016 quarter-finals. The Germans had won the first leg 2-0. He completed the stunning comeback with a sublime chipped free kick that sent the Madrid fans into delirium. Bongarts/Getty Images Ronaldo's Champions League century Goal 100 The Real Madrid superstar scored five of his team's six goals in the quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich, moving him to a century of goals as he tapped home Marcelo’s cross in the second period of extra time. Getty Images

Littlehales is not going to take us into Ronaldo’s bedroom in his angular, modernist house in the Madrid suburb of La Finca but he is told, like all of his clients, to aim for five 90-minute ‘sleeps’. An hour and a half before Ronaldo goes to bed, he will turn off his phone, stop watching television or any other screens.

Littlehales is a man in demand (Getty)

Littlehales advises his clients to sleep in the foetal position in fresh laundry – you imagine Ronaldo has someone to change his sheets for him – and he disdains the kind of luxury mattresses that claim to hug the body’s contours.

“All you need is 10 centimetres of foam,” he said. “Why, when you go camping and start sleeping on a thinner mattress do you wake up feeling fantastic? I’ve been working with Team Sky for a number of years and during every Tour de France, Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a Espana, we go ahead to the hotels making sure the cyclists sleep on exactly the same mattress every night.”

Nick's top tips Turn off your phone, TV and any screens an hour-and-a-half before

No need for a luxury mattress

Sleep in the foetal position in fresh laundry

Try for five 90-minute sleeps

They are called ‘sleep kits’. Sir Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France sleeping on a couple of pieces of foam – but sleeping correctly. During the London Olympics, Sir Chris Hoy was given a five-star hotel room. The bed was unused. Hoy slept on the floor on a sleep kit, tailored to his body shape.

Given that Littlehales’s clients include husband-and-wife team Laura Trott and Jason Kenny, his next piece of advice might be unsettling: “We are not designed to sleep together,” he said. “If we were in our natural state, you would sleep under that tree and your partner would sleep under the one over there.” If you must sleep together, the minimum mattress he recommends is a super king size.

Which brings us to sex. Littlehales is generally agnostic about its value but in his book The Myth of Eight Hours he does quote Clemens Westerhof, who managed Nigeria in the 1994 World Cup. The problem, said Westerhof, was not his footballers having sex but in them spending all night looking for it.

Husband and wife Jason and Laura Kenny are two more of Littlehales' clients (Getty)

How much influence Littlehales wields depends on convincing key individuals. When he was asked to Arsenal’s training ground at London Colney to discuss sleep, his presentation was being ridiculed until Thierry Henry intervened.

“I was lucky in that one of the first people I wrote to about sleep was Alex Ferguson,” he said. “It was the late 1990s and Manchester United were having dreadful problems with Gary Pallister’s back to the extent they were even contemplating spinal surgery. We thought his mattress was part of the problem and, although it didn’t completely cure his back, it helped enormously. With any other manager, my letter would have gone straight in the bin. I stopped working with United the moment he left.