Time zones are regions on Earth in which local time is synched with mean solar time. Time zones typically span 15 degrees of longitude and provide legal, commercial and social uses within that region.
Studies have demonstrated that peak athletic performance declines when athletes travel across multiple time zones, but we'll take a deeper dive into how flying direction affects this performance degradation.
The Impact of Time Zones on Athlete Performance
Jet lag's effects are well-documented, and its consequences for athletes of any level of competition. From NFL teams losing after long flights to Olympic gold medalists experiencing performance decrease due to time zone crossing, its effects can be felt across a wide variety of disciplines and sports.
Studies on Olympic athletes have demonstrated the relationship between chronotype and athletic performance and cognitive tasks such as decision making, concentration, short term memory and fine motor control and speed peaks in the morning and motor skills peaks later in the day or evening - meaning athletes who compete early when their biological limits are at their lowest performance will be at a disadvantage even when making every effort to prepare.
This research validates the hypothesis that athlete performance is affected by crossing multiple time zones and that any negative consequences from this are more prominent when flying east rather than west, in line with previous jet lag studies. These results could prove invaluable to athletes, coaches and trainers, enabling them to mitigate any detrimental impacts by training/competing at times closer to their chronotype's biological peak time.
The Impact of Time Zones on Betting
Professional sports have demonstrated that long distance travel across multiple time zones has an adverse effect on performance at https://1xbetcricket.online/ . A study of MLB baseball teams that traveled three time zones for an evening game revealed a 60 percent chance of losing due to the disruption to their circadian rhythms.
Effects become even more prominent when considering both time zone crossing and flight direction. Slopes of change in performance impairment and jet lag have been studied extensively previously; however, interactions between time zone crossings and flying directions warrant special consideration.
Silver medal counts appear to benefit from time zone effects, while gold and bronze are negatively impacted. This could be attributed to an effect known as demotion: athletes affected by time zones may experience reduced performance levels due to time difference affecting them at an athlete level that lowers their medal rankings.
The Impact of Time Zones on Athlete Schedules
Traveling across time zones is not only challenging for athletes, but for anyone attempting to adapt their biological clocks to new locations. This can cause all sorts of issues from decreased energy to worsened sleep health; and changes to circadian rhythms could even impact focus and mental clarity.
There are a few steps you can take to reduce jet lag. These include switching to local time as soon as you board a plane and taking sleeping aids such as melatonin or light emitting devices for sleeping during flights. Furthermore, eating according to local schedules and drinking plenty of water should help.
Performance-wise, this research shows that the more time zones an athlete travels through, the lower their gold medal tally. Furthermore, flying east has an especially detrimental impact on performance - possibly explained by jet lag effects.
The Impact of Time Zones on Athlete Travel
Long distance travel can have an adverse effect on athletic performance. Sleep disruption and jet lag may impair performance significantly, hindering its performance altogether.
Athletes can reduce the impact of travel by adapting their sleeping patterns and planning a carefully considered itinerary, but for elite athletes competing at higher-level competitions, its impacts can be even greater.
This study draws upon data from 15 Olympic Games to demonstrate that crossing multiple time zones has detrimental ramifications for human performance, particularly when traveling eastbound. This phenomenon has been well documented, and this effect becomes especially pronounced with flying east. Peak performances noticeably decline resulting in "demotion effect", where gold medal winners become silver medal winners as their performance drops further; not that top athletes do not perform well, just that it may be harder for them to reach peak performances after traveling across multiple time zones.