Stanford NCAA football players sleep longer, perform better

The Stanford Cardinal is learning sleep may be the key factor in gaining the upper hand in the increasingly competitive Pac-10 college football conference.

A group of football players at Stanford University ran faster and responded quicker when two more hours of sleep were added to their daily training regimen.

The findings are the latest to show sleep can help athletic performance. Lead author Cheri Mah turned her attention to football after demonstrating similar benefits for basketball, tennis, swimming and other sports.

The research abstract for “Sleep extension and athletic performance in collegiate football” is on display Tuesday at SLEEP 2010.

Seven team members who played various positions began the study by sleeping normal hours for the first couple weeks of the season. Then for seven to eight weeks, they slept in as long as possible.

The players’ times dropped significantly in the 40-yard-dash and the 20-yard-shuffle. Both drills are commonly used to evaluate football players at the college level and in the NFL Scouting Combine.

The researchers also monitored the players’ moods and daytime sleepiness. Both scores also improved along with the athletes’ vigor.

Mah advises athletes to extend sleep several weeks before competition, maintain a low sleep debt and keep a regular sleep schedule. Brief naps are also helpful, especially when drowsy.

Some NBA teams are beginning to recognize they can gain an advantage by accommodating for sleep. The 2010 Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics are among the teams that practice in the afternoon instead of the morning.

Gary Kubiak: Sleep Apnea, Surgery & the NFL

Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak is receiving surgical treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.

Nose surgery was performed yesterday, reports The Houston Chronicle. In six weeks another procedure will be performed on his throat.

Sleep apnea is a common problem in the NFL. Last year the Sleep Education Blog reported that OSA is common in retired NFL players. The NFL and the NFL Players Association previously began working together to target heart disease and sleep apnea in retired players.

And a 2003 study of 302 NFL players found that they are more likely to have sleep apnea than other men their age. The risk was highest for offensive and defensive linemen.

Although Kubiak is a retired NFL player, he wasn’t a lineman. He was a back-up quarterback for the Denver Broncos from 1983 to 1991. Kubiak threw 14 touchdown passes in limited playing time behind John Elway, a 2004 inductee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And the 48-year-old Kubiak isn’t obese. He is listed at 6 feet, 192 pounds. This gives him a body mass index (BMI) of 26, which means he is slightly overweight.

His case is a good reminder that OSA can occur in men and women of all body types. It also can occur in children.

Excess body weight is the major predisposing factor for obstructive sleep apnea. But OSA also occurs in people who maintain a healthy weight. A study presented at SLEEP 2009 found a high rate of sleep apnea in non-obese adults.

The AASM reports that CPAP therapy is the treatment of choice for all severity levels of OSA. A surgical procedure is an alternative treatment option for some people with sleep apnea.

It may be required to correct a physical abnormality. It also may be performed if you are unable to have success with CPAP or an oral appliance.

Surgical procedures tend to be “site-specific;” they will seek to eliminate the cause of the obstruction. Problem areas related to OSA include the tonsils, tongue, soft palate, throat, jaw and nose.

In Kubiak’s case, septoplasty may have been performed on his nose to straighten a bent septum. Or he may have had turbinate reduction to reduce or remove large turbinates and polyps from the nasal passage.

His upcoming surgery may involve the removal of soft tissue from the throat. This tissue can collapse and block the airway during sleep.

Are you at risk for sleep apnea? STOP and find out. You also can answer these questions on SleepEducation.com to learn more about your risk. Get help for sleep apnea at an AASM-accredited sleep center near you.

Read more about OSA and surgery.

Image by Brit

Gaines Adams’ Death: Heart Problems & Sleep Apnea in the NFL

The death of Chicago Bears player Gaines Adams has focused attention on heart problems in athletes. The 26-year-old Adams died Sunday morning. The coroner’s report indicates that he died from cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the hearts of healthy athletes tend to be bigger and thicker than normal. So it can be hard to determine if a heart problem is present.

SI.com notes that in athletes the heart chambers tend to enlarge. The heart walls are likely to thicken when disease is present. But there can be a “troubling gray area” when both the chambers and walls are mildly enlarged.



It is well known that obstructive sleep apnea is a risk factor for heart disease. A scientific statement published in 2008 urged doctors to pay attention to the link between the two conditions.

There have been no reports that Adams had sleep apnea. But could OSA have contributed to his heart problems?

Dr. Steven Park raised the question on his Sleep Apnea Blog. He noted that the build of Adams’ body put him at risk for OSA.

“There are many reasons for an enlarged heart but one major risk factor Adams had was his build,” Park wrote. “Just like many NFL players, he had large neck muscles that probably pressed on his upper airway.”

Adams’ death also caught the attention of Steve Gardner. He is the executive director of the Reggie White Sleep Disorders Research & Education Foundation.

“It is possible that sleep apnea played a role in his untimely death,” Gardner wrote on the Sleep Well and Live Blog. “We’ve seen it before… Sadly, we will see it again. We may have just seen it in the case of Gaines Adams.”

Retired NFL star Reggie White died in 2004 at the age of 43. Reports indicate that sleep apnea may have played a role in his death.

Studies have shown that sleep apnea is a problem in the NFL. Last year the Sleep Education Blog reported that OSA is common in retired NFL players.

And a 2003 study of 302 NFL players found that they are more likely to have sleep apnea than other men their age. The risk was highest for offensive and defensive linemen.

NFL officials have taken notice of the problem. In 2007 the NFL and the NFL Players Association began working together to target heart disease and sleep apnea in retired players.

The most common treatment for OSA is CPAP therapy. On SleepEducation.com you can learn how CPAP helps the heart.

NBA Teams Sleeping Like Champions

Previously the Sleep Education Blog reported that both the Boston Celtics and the Portland Trail Blazers have been making sleep a priority. Now it seems like sleep is catching on in the NBA.

As a result the early morning shoot-around may become a casualty of this renewed emphasis on sleep. Over the weekend sportswriter Howard Beck wrote in the New York Times:

For 38 years, the morning shoot-around has been an unquestioned staple of the N.B.A. game-day routine. It may soon be extinct, another dusty exhibit in basketball history, next to the peach basket, the two-handed set shot and John Stockton’s short shorts.

The San Antonio Spurs were the trend setters. Two years ago they stopped holding morning shoot-arounds on game days.

This season they’ve eliminated morning practices altogether. Instead they’re practicing at 4 p.m.

“The shootarounds were the beginning,” Spurs head coach Greg Popovich told the San Antonio Express-News. “The next step was actually giving them more time to get more sleep.”

The Celtics and Blazers aren’t the only teams that have noticed. The Times reports that the New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and Washington Wizards also are experimenting with changes to their practice schedules.

The goal is to help players overcome the grueling demands of the long NBA season. Late games, early practices and jet lag can be a nightmare for sleep-deprived athletes.

“The general principle is that if you are going to prioritize anything, you should prioritize sleep,” Harvard sleep researcher and NBA consultant Dr. Charles Czeisler told the Times.

But in the NBA the bottom line is that you have to win. Principles can get tossed out the window of the team bus if they don’t translate into victories on the court.

That may explain why sleep is the newest fad in the NBA. The sleeping teams have been winning. So other teams are starting to follow their game plan.

The Spurs have won three out of the last seven NBA championships. The Celtics won the 2008 NBA Title and have a 21-5 record so far this season. And last year the Blazers surged to a tie for first place in their division.

As sleep continues to help these teams win, other teams are likely to start getting more sleep. It’s the new sleep cycle in the NBA.

Learn more about how sleep improves sports performance.

Image by Jack

Improve Your Golf Game with CPAP for Sleep Apnea

According to ABC News, people suffering from obstructive sleep apnea often ignore its serious effects. However, some people seek treatment when they discover that it can improve their performance during their favorite activities.

A recent study abstract found that treating OSA in golfers improved their game by up to three strokes off their handicap in 20 rounds of golf.

The study included 24 golfers. Twelve were treated for OSA, while 12 were not. Results show that golfers who received treatment used their CPAP 90 percent of the time. CPAP therapy is most effective when it is used all night, every night.

Other hobbies can benefit from CPAP therapy too. Solving crossword puzzles, bowling, and even driving may become less challenging and more enjoyable.

People with moderate to severe OSA may wake up hundreds of times per night without knowing it. Untreated OSA can cause daytime sleepiness and decreased daytime functioning. More serious problems include increased risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, stroke and even death.

How do you cure OSA?

The AASM recommends dietary weight loss as one treatment strategy for people who are obese and have sleep apnea. But weight loss should be combined with another treatment such as CPAP or an oral appliance.

CPAP keeps the airway open to prevent breathing pauses during sleep. This improves your sleep quality, allowing you to think more clearly and work more efficiently during the day.

Visit an AASM-accredited sleep disorders center if you have an ongoing sleep problem.

Image by Robert V

Celtics Getting Sleep for the NBA Season

Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers is looking for any advantage that will help his team return to the NBA Finals this year. After winning the 2008 NBA Title, the Celtics were ousted from the 2009 playoffs by the Orlando Magic.

This season the Celtics get All-Star forward Kevin Garnett back from a knee injury. They’re also getting more sleep.

The team is being advised by Harvard sleep researcher Dr. Charles Czeisler. As a result they’re practicing at noon instead of early in the morning. And they’re no longer holding morning shootarounds on game days.

“I think they’re fresh,” Rivers told the Boston Globe. “I think we’ve had better practices.”

The goal is to help the players avoid the sleep deprivation that is rampant in the NBA. The 82-game regular season can be a brutal grind.

Play a late game; fly deep into the night to the next city on the schedule; fight off jet lag for a morning practice. Do it all over again.

As teams criss-cross the country sleep can get lost like checked luggage. That may be one reason why only seven of the 30 NBA teams had a winning record on the road last season.

“What we are trying to do is leverage the power of sleep,’’ said Czeisler. “As pro athletes, they spend so much time trying to practice and master the skills of the game - and sleep turns out to be a very critical part of the process…Teams that take advantage of this can really enhance their play.”

In January the Sleep Education Blog reported that the Portland Trail Blazers were getting help from Czeisler. They had finished the previous season with a mediocre 41-41 record.

The Blazers surged to a tie for first place in their division with a 54-28 record. The turnaround was fueled in part by a seven-game improvement in their road record.

The Celtics hope sleep will be a successful part of their gameplan this year. They’ll get their first test when they open the season against LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Tuesday night.

As for Czeisler, he hopes that we would all get more sleep.

“We are such a sleep-deprived society,’’ Czeisler said. “But the message is beginning to get through, that sleep is important for performance…It’s all about making sleep a priority.”

Learn more about how sleep improves sports performance.

Image by Daniel Go

Sleep Improves Sports Performance

A study that was presented last week at SLEEP 2009 in Seattle, Wash., adds to the evidence that sleep can improve sports performance.

The ongoing study at Stanford involved five members of the women’s tennis team. They maintained their regular sleep routine for two to three weeks during the season. Then they extended their sleep to 10 hours per night for five to six weeks. Performance was measured after ever practice.

Results show that sleep extension was associated with significant performance improvements. The athletes were faster during sprinting drills; their hitting accuracy also improved.

Sleep extension also led to changes in mood. Daytime sleepiness and fatigue decreased, and energy increased.

“Many do not realize that optimal or peak performance can only occur when an athlete’s sleep and sleep habits are optimal,” study author Cheri Mah told the AASM.

Last year at SLEEP 2008 Mah presented results of a similar study involving Stanford swimmers. Sprint times were faster during sleep extension; turn times and kick strokes also improved. Swimmers even reacted faster off the blocks.

At SLEEP 2007 Mah reported that sleep extension improved basketball performance. Sprint times and free-throw shooting improved after extra sleep.

Over the years Mah also has worked with the football, golf, cross country, and track and field teams at Stanford.

“Athletes across all sports can greatly benefit from extra sleep and gain the additional competitive edge to perform at their highest level,” Mah told the AASM.

Mah also said that Stanford coaches have been paying close attention to their athletes’ involvement in the ongoing study.

“Many of the Stanford coaches are definitely more aware of the importance of sleep,” she said. “Coaches have even started to make changes to their practice and traveling schedules to allow for proper sleep habits. For many athletes and coaches, this study was the first time they truly understood how large of an impact sleep can have on their performance and results.”

Image by Marc d'Entremont

NBA Finals: A West Coast Advantage for the Lakers?

Game one of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and Magic will tip off a little after 9 p.m. EDT tonight. The Lakers will have the home-court advantage in the seven-game series; a study in the journal Sleep shows that they also may have a West Coast advantage.

The study analyzed 8,495 regular-season NBA games over eight seasons. The researchers did not find that jet lag had a major influence on the outcome of games.

But then they did a sub-analysis of 101 games in which one team traveled across the country to play. In these games, the visiting team did four points better when they traveled west to east rather than east to west.

This may not sound like a big difference. But during the last season studied, there was only a 3.2-point difference between winners and losers in NBA games. Four points could change the outcome of a game.

Why did the West Coast teams have an edge? The authors propose that it has to do with the timing of the games.

Research suggests that athletic performance may peak in the late afternoon. Performance may decline at night as sleepiness increases.

When a game tips off at 9 p.m. in Orlando, the Lakers will be playing at a “body-clock time” of 6 p.m. They may be more alert than the Magic players.

So the Lakers may have a better chance of stealing a game on the road. Then again, it was the East Coast Celtics who won a road game in Los Angeles on the way to a 4-2 series win in the 2008 Finals.

The Magic players aren’t the only ones who face an uphill battle in this series; their fans will be put to the test too.

The Orlando Sentinel reports today that the late tip-off times during the playoffs are depriving Magic fans of sleep. When it comes to sleep, Lakers fans have their own West Coast advantage.

Image by Dale Chumbley

NHL Playoffs: Is Sleep the Secret to Vancouver’s Success?

The NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers weren’t the only pro sports team getting advice from a sleep doctor this year. Canada’s CBC Sports reports that the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks followed a similar sleep strategy this season.

The results for both teams were positive. The Blazers took a 54-28 record into the first round of the playoffs. The Canucks finished the regular season 45-27-10. Then they swept the St. Louis Blues out of the playoffs in four games.

The Canucks were 3-0 on the road in the playoffs before losing in Chicago on Thursday. Now their series with the Blackhawks is tied at two games each. Has sleep been their secret weapon this season?

Each player’s sleep was monitored early in the season. Then the team’s sleep doctor made recommendations for flight times, practice times and days off.

The Canucks will try to take the series lead tonight in Vancouver. Then the series will return to Chicago on Monday.

Image by Kate Harrington

NBA Fans Can Get a Little More Sleep

Basketball fans can look forward to an earlier bedtime as they enjoy the 2009 NBA playoffs, which tip off today. But only one hour earlier…and only on Sunday nights…and only during the NBA Finals.

Earlier this season the NBA announced a slight change to the playoff schedule. Sunday night games during the Finals will begin around 8 p.m. EDT instead of 9 p.m.

First-round games in the Eastern Conference also will begin no later than 8 p.m. But East Coast fans will lose a lot of sleep trying to watch the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Want to see Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan or Carmelo Anthony try to lead their teams to the second round? Get ready to stay up for tip-off times as late as 10:30 p.m. EDT.

But is this season’s schedule change a sign that there will be a shift to earlier tip-offs in the coming years? Don’t count on it.

Fans of the Celtics weren’t too happy with the 9 p.m. start times during the 2008 Finals. Especially the parents of children who should have been in bed when the games were just getting started.

But NBA Commissioner David Stern made it clear: Start times will be determined by projected ratings and audience sizes…not by sleep needs.

“The ad rates only go up if the ratings go up,” Stern told a Boston sports radio station last June. “The ratings only go up if there are more people watching.”

Image by Adam Pieniazek

Sleep & Jet Lag on Day 2 of “March Madness”

How did yesterday’s jet lag-challenged teams fare on the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament?

BYU came out flat, fell behind and never caught up to Texas A&M. Cal State Northridge was the opposite. They started strong but faded late in a loss to Memphis.

As for UCLA, they’re probably relieved to have escaped with a one-point win. After crossing three time zones to play a late game, they’ll surely get some rest today on their day off.

Which teams are most likely to come out sluggish on day two of the tournament?

Utah St. gets to stay “home” in the Mountain time zone to play Marquette in Boise, Idaho. But it will be an early morning for the Aggies.

The 12:30 p.m. EDT tip-off means that the game will start at 10:30 a.m. locally. It will feel like 11:30 a.m. for sixth-seeded Marquette, which will travel from Milwaukee in the Central time zone.

Stephen F. Austin plays in the earliest game against third-seeded Syracuse. The 12:15 p.m. EDT start in Miami, Fla., will feel like 11:15 in the morning for the Lumberjacks from the state of Texas.

Oklahoma St. faces a similar challenge. The 12:25 EDT tip-off in Dayton, Ohio, will feel like 11:25 a.m. for the eighth-seeded Cowboys. Knoxville, Tenn., is in the part of the state that is in the Eastern time zone. So there will be no time change for the Volunteers.

Travelling east may be a challenge for Arizona St. Arizona does not recognize daylight saving time. So the state is currently three hours behind Eastern Daylight Time.

Temple will try to upset the sixth-seeded Sun Devils at 2:45 EDT in Miami. It will feel like an 11:45 a.m. start for Arizona St.

Cornell will take a long flight from Ithaca, N.Y., to Boise to play third-seeded Missouri. The 3 p.m. EDT start time won’t be a problem. But the long flight could take a toll on the players.

Fifth-seeded Florida St. also had to make the long trip to Boise to play Wisconsin. In addition to the flight, the Seminoles will have to deal with an unusual 9:55 p.m. EDT tip-off.

In the end, sleep can be a challenge for players on every team. The excitement and pressure of the tournament can lead to sleepless nights. The Herald Journal described how the Utah St. players struggled to sleep during their conference tournament.

And players aren’t the only ones fighting sleep loss. Fans on the East Coast have to stay up late to watch all of the 10 p.m. games.

So try to get some sleep even as you enjoy the madness.

Sleep, Jet Lag and “March Madness”

The NCAA basketball tournament tips off today at 12:20 p.m. EDT. Did you finish your bracket yet?

President Obama completed his bracket early. Surprisingly, he was extremely “conservative” with his picks.

His Elite Eight includes all four of the number-one seeds and three of the number-two seeds. His only sleeper? Third-seeded Syracuse over second-seeded Oklahoma.

If you’re still finalizing your bracket, one thing to keep in mind is jet lag. Some teams have to travel a long way to play their first game.

One example is UCLA. The Bruins have to cross three time zones to play upset-minded Virginia Commonwealth in Philadelphia, Pa., tonight.

The good news for UCLA is that the game won’t start until almost 10 p.m. EDT. They’ll be playing when their body clocks are set at a West-Coast time of 7 p.m. So it will feel like a normal tip-off time for the Bruins.

It’s the earlier, 12:30 p.m. EDT start times that can be more difficult for some players. Cal State Northridge and BYU both must cross two time zones to play opening-round games today. It will feel like a 10:30 a.m. start for the players on both teams.

Cal State Northridge plays Memphis in Kansas City, Mo. BYU plays Texas A&M in Philadelphia.

But can sleep really have an effect on a basketball game?

Just ask Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory. She has studied how sleep affects players on many of the Stanford sports teams.

One study involved six players on the men’s basketball team. Performance measures such as sprint times and free-throw shooting improved after extra sleep. So did ratings of mood and alertness.

“Sleep is a significant factor in achieving peak athletic performance,” said Mah. “Athletes across all sports can greatly benefit from extra sleep and gain the additional competitive edge to perform at their highest level.”

So sleep may be one factor that adds to the madness of this year’s tournament.

White House Photo, 3/17/09, Pete Souza

Drowsy Racing: NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon Learns About Sleep Loss & Parenthood

Even a top NASCAR driver can suffer from drowsy driving. Especially when he’s a new parent.

Florida Today reports that sleep loss may help explain Jeff Gordon’s disappointing 2008 season. It seems that the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is still adjusting to fatherhood. His wife Ingrid gave birth to their daughter Ella Sofia on June 20, 2007.

“It's that I'm not sleeping,” Gordon recently told reporters. “I'm showing up to the race track trying to hold my eyes open because I'm sleep deprived because she was up crying at 3 in the morning. I'm trying to be a good husband, not necessarily just a good father, and play my role."

The 37-year-old Gordon already ranks as one of the best NASCAR drivers in history. He is sixth on NASCAR’s all-time win list with 81 victories; “The King” Richard Petty is untouchable at the top with 200 wins. In the “modern era” of NASCAR racing, Gordon ranks second behind Darrel Waltrip’s 84 victories.

Yet in 2008 Gordon was winless for the first time since 1993. On Sunday he started in third at the Daytona 500, race one of 36 in the 2009 Sprint Cup Series. He finished in 13th place.

Gordon’s problems are magnified because of his place in the public spotlight. But his sleep struggles are common for new parents.

According to AASM spokesperson Dr. Daniel Glaze, parents are at risk for losing hundreds of hours of sleep during their child’s first year of life. This sleep loss can have a severe effect on how you function during the day, even if you’re not a NASCAR driver.

“Sleep loss can affect job performance, impair cognitive performance, increase errors and slow reaction times,” said Glaze.

For Gordon, the race goes on. He’ll try to get some quality sleep before this Sunday’s Auto Club 500 in Fontana, Calif.

Are you a parent who can relate to Gordon’s struggles? Did you find any good ways to get some sleep after your baby arrived?

The AASM offers these tips to help new parents get a good night’s sleep.

Image courtesy of DuPont

Update 2/25/09: Gordon finished second in the Auto Club 500 behind Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth, crossing the finish line just 1.463 seconds after the winner.

“Footballers” Getting Premier Sleep in England

U.S. athletes aren’t the only ones talking to sleep experts. Sleep is catching on across the pond too. The Telegraph reports that soccer players – “footballers” - in England’s Premier League are getting help from a “sleep coach.”

The focus isn’t on jet lag. Instead it’s on helping players overcome everyday problems that affect their sleep. Common struggles involve insomnia, injuries and frequent trips on buses and planes.

Mattresses and pillows are designed for a player’s specific needs. This includes his height and weight. Even his injury history is taken into account.

Before an important game the sleep coach helped one team replace the mattresses in their hotel. He also made sure that players who snore weren’t too close to other teammates.

Players are using pillows with imbedded iPod docks and speakers. They’re lulled to sleep by soothing sounds or “white noise.” But instead of an iPod, one player keeps a vacuum turned on for background noise while sleeping.

The sleep coach even gets the players’ wives involved. He counsels them on colors that can make the bedroom more relaxing. (He prefers an all-white room.)

It’s unclear if all this attention is affecting players’ performance on the field - or as they say, “on the pitch.”

But Manchester United has won the last two titles and has an unmatched 10 titles overall. They’re in first place again this year. They also have two of the world’s best players in Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. So United just might be the best-sleeping team in the league.

Fighting Jet Lag in the NBA

Pro football players weren’t the only athletes fighting the effects of jet lag over the weekend. The Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat all played on the road against Western Conference teams on Sunday. Only the Magic won, escaping San Antonio with a 105-98 victory over the Spurs.

Jet lag is simply a part of life in the NBA. The 82-game regular season schedule forces teams to criss-cross the country on a regular basis. Players can forget what city they’re in, much less the time zone.

But at least one team is fighting back against jet lag. The Oregonian reports that the Portland Trail Blazers are taking advice from a sleep doctor. It seems to be paying off.

Last season the Blazers were 7-14 in games that were played two or more time zones away. So far this season they are 7-2 in those games. Overall the Blazers are 22-14 and in second place in the Northwest Division.

The team is changing flight and practice schedules to let players get more sleep. Players also are encouraged to maintain a consistent sleep-wake pattern.

When playing on the East Coast, the Blazers don’t try to adapt to the new time zone. Instead they keep their body clocks set to a West Coast schedule. So a player who goes to bed at 1 a.m. in Portland will stay up until 4 a.m. in Orlando.

The Blazers will apply their new sleep strategy this week during another four-game trip east. It begins this evening with a game in the Central time zone against the Bulls.

Update (1/13/09): Blazers 109, Bulls 95

Update (1/14/09): 76ers 100, Blazers 79

Update (1/16/09): Blazers 105, Nets 99

Update (1/17/09): Bobcats 102, Blazers 97

Will Jet Lag Affect this Weekend’s NFL Playoffs?

A Bloomberg.com story takes an interesting look at this weekend’s NFL playoff games. West Coast teams Arizona and San Diego both must travel to the East Coast to play. Will jet lag affect their performance? Results from this season suggest it might.

Arizona finished 9-7 to win the NFC West Division. But the Cardinals were 0-5 in games on the East Coast. San Diego finished 8-8 to win the AFC West Division. They faired a little better on the East Coast, going 1- 3. The Chargers kept their playoff hopes alive by flying east to beat Tampa Bay 41-24 on Dec. 21.

Why would jet lag affect sports teams? Quickly crossing time zones disrupts the timing of your body clock. This can upset your sleep patterns and your daytime alertness.

It’s harder to adjust when you fly from west to east. You have to convince your body to go to sleep at night, and to become alert in the morning, hours earlier than normal. This is bad news for the Cardinals and Chargers.

Playing in the Pacific time zone, the Chargers face a three-hour change when flying to the East Coast. Until November Arizona was also three hours behind Eastern Daylight Time since the state does not observe daylight saving time. But until March the state is now on Mountain Standard Time, a two-hour difference.

A study of more than 24,000 Major League Baseball games confirmed a jet-lag trend in sports. Teams with a three-hour time-zone advantage won 60 percent of the time. Teams with only a one-or-two-hour advantage won about 52 percent of the time.

So does the East-Coast advantage make the Panthers and Steelers a lock for this weekend’s games? Not so fast. The Cardinals will play their game at 8:15 p.m. EST. This may give them a slight edge.

Research suggests that athletic performance may peak in the late afternoon. Performance may decline at night as sleepiness increases.

A 1997 study in the journal Sleep analyzed Monday Night Football games from 1970 to 1994. It looked at every one of the games that had a West Coast team playing an East Coast team.

Each of these games began around 9 p.m. Eastern time. This means that games on the West Coast began at 6 p.m. Pacific time. In games played on the East Coast, the West Coast teams played at a 6 p.m. “body-clock time.”

The study found an advantage for the West Coast teams. They won about 64 percent of the games by an average of 14.7 points per game. They even won about 56 percent of the games played on the East Coast. Results remained significant even after controlling for home-field advantage and point spread.

So the “6 p.m.-alert” Cardinals will have a clear advantage over the “8 p.m.-sleepy” Panthers? Well, not quite.

Today teams have a better understanding of jet lag’s effect on performance. It’s common for them to arrive at the host city a couple days early. This gives players time to adjust to the new time zone. In effect the Cardinals may shift their body clocks closer to the East Coast time.

So how will it all pan out? Maybe each game will simply be won by the best team.