Eastward Jet Lag is Associated with Impaired Performance and Game Outcome in the National Basketball Association

Leota, Josh; Hoffman, Daniel; Czeisler, Mark É; Mascaro, Luis; Drummond, S; Anderson, Clare; Rajaratnam, Shantha M W; Facer-Childs, Elise R.

doi:10.3389/fphys.2022.892681

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Therefore, if we cannot discern an effect of jet lag and game time on a large dataset of collegiate football games, it certainly calls into question previous studies suggesting these effects existed in NFL teams, 17,18 if not other professional sports. [14][15][16][17]19 Complex questions require complex models that do not have a "textbook" solution from which to draw inferences and conclusions. For many complex models, bootstrapping is a general solution from which one can derive standard errors and confidence intervals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12,13 In contrast to individual-level studies examining jet lag and human performance, 'big data' studies generally show an apparent effect of jet lag decreasing team performance. [14][15][16][17][18][19] However, all of these studies employ simplistic univariate analyses [16][17][18][19] and/or infer causality from simplistic multivariable correlations. 14,15,18,19 Such modeling is not strongly informed by theory (i.e., a putative causal structure) and may thus lead to fallacious causal inferences.…”

Section: Current Evidence On Jet Lag and Sport Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Jet Lag Does Not Impact Football Performance: Using Randomization Inference to Handle Complexity

Tenan,

Rezai,

Vigotsky

2023

Preprint

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Introduction It is commonly accepted that traveling across time zones affects sport performance (i.e. via jet lag). This belief is based on poor quality evidence for team sports and simplistic analyses, such as t-tests and linear regression, to explore complex phenomena. For instance, Roy & Forest used such analyses to examine win percentages for the NFL, NBA, and NHL, concluding that East Coast teams were disadvantaged. Similarly, Smith et al. primarily used t-tests to show that West Coast NFL teams were more likely than East Coast teams to beat the Vegas spread in evening games (non-coastal teams were omitted). Neither analysis considered time zone change or game time as continuous constructs nor did they account for important contextual information. We used modern causal inference methods and a decade of Collegiate Football games to determine if jet lag and kickoff time have any causal effect on beating the Vegas spread. This required fitting nonlinear splines for both data re-weighting and analysis; however, using weights in a generalized additive model (GAM) presents challenges for standard frequentist inferences. Thus, non-parametric simulations were developed to obtain valid causal inferences via randomization inference (RI). Methods Pro Football Focus data from college football seasons 2013-2022 were paired with time zone data from Google Maps, weather data from gridMET, and Vegas spread data from collegefootballdata.com. GAM-based propensity scores were calculated from turf type, stadium type, precipitation, humidity, temperature, and wind speed. These propensity scores orthogonalized these variables relationship to the treatments (i.e., game time and hours gained due to time zone change) consistent with the Potential Outcomes framework. The propensity scores were used to weight the observations in a GAM logistic regression, which modeled beating the Vegas spread as a function of a splined interaction for game time and hours gained in travel. Since valid standard errors cannot be calculated from GAMs with weights, we used RI to compare the interaction effect to random chance. We simulated 5,000 datasets of random treatments under the positivity assumption. Each RI dataset was analyzed with the same GAM used for the observed data to obtain a distribution of noise F-statistics. The real data F-statistic was contrasted to the RI distribution for inferences. Results The real data were highly compatible with the null hypothesis of no effect for hours lost/gained in travel and game time (p = 0.471). Conclusion We need to rigorously interrogate assumptions regarding what affects performance in team sports. There is no clear indication that jet lag and game time affect team performance when appropriate analyses are performed in a causal inference framework. Similarly rigorous analysis should be undertaken to confirm or refute other assumptions in sport science, such as workload management, sleep practices, and dietary/supplementation regimens.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Evidence On Jet Lag and Sport Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Jet Lag Does Not Impact Football Performance: Using Randomization Inference to Handle Complexity

Tenan,

Rezai,

Vigotsky

2023

Preprint

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“…However, not all the literature supports the notion that time zone change degrades competitive performance strictly in westward travel. Leota and colleagues (2022) evidenced that time zone change in the eastward, but not westward, direction was associated with reduced NBA winning percentage, as well as overall point, rebound, and field goal percentage differential [ 47 ]. Similarly, Zacharko and colleagues (2022) concluded that eastward travel across time zones associated with worse performance results than westward travel across time zones in a sample of professional soccer players [ 48 ].…”

Section: Sleep’s Role In Athletics At the Professional Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beyond the aforementioned studies, we have also identified six other investigations that evaluated the effects of travel across time zones on competitive performance outcomes in professional athletes [44][45][46][47][48][49]. Since sleep health often degrades when traveling across time zones due to factors such as circadian disruption, travel fatigue, and irregular sleep behaviors [50], these findings in this section appear most appropriate for the review.…”

Section: Travel and Time Zone Change: Negative Influence On Sleep Tha...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep and Performance in Professional Athletes

Cook

Charest

2023

Curr Sleep Medicine Rep

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Purpose of Review Sleep is an essential human behavior that plays a key role in proper biopsychosocial development as well as short- and long-term biological, physical, psychological, and cognitive health. Sleep plays a key role in athletic performance, influencing an athlete’s ability to train, recover, and perform, as well as their overall wellness. Over the recent decade, the awareness of sleep’s import has penetrated just about every professional sport domain. The purpose of the review was to identify and synthesize the literature published within the past 5 years (2018–2022) that relates to sleep and performance in professional athletes. Literature related to nonprofessional, high-level athletes (e.g., collegiate; Olympic) was omitted as well as those associated with non-traditional professional sports (e.g., eSports). Recent Findings Results from 38 articles were incorporated into this review, which covered (1) the sleep’s role in the training, physical injury prevention and recovery, competitive performance, and mental health of professional athletes, (2) common sleep problems and disorders in professional athletes, and (3) the impact of unique challenges from training, travel, competition, and other factors on sleep health. Additionally, we provide an orientation to utilized strategies and interventions to assist with sleep health in professional athletes, as well as conclude with a commentary on critical steps forward. Summary Sleep plays a critically important role in the training, recovery, performance, and overall wellness of professional athletes. Professional athletes are vulnerable to a variety of sleep-related problems and disorders, due to unique factors related to training, travel, and competition, among other factors. Improved, standardized research methodology and partnerships between professional athletes, coaches, teams, and organizations and researchers are necessary to advance the knowledge of sleep and performance in professional athletes, including identifying sport-specific differences and variation across individual characteristics, as well as developing individualizable, dynamic, and appropriate interventions for improving sleep health among professional athletes.

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“…Chronic stressors—both within and outside of their job—also impact performance and wellbeing. For example, frequent and long-distance air travel is known to disrupt sleep and circadian rhythms which can lead to chronic jet lag and impair performance ( Fowler et al, 2017 ; Leota et al, 2022 ). Similarly, after a long-term injury, athletes report mental health symptoms and a low level of psychological readiness to return to competition at their best despite full physical recovery ( Ruddock-Hudson et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive fitness modulates gender differences in sleep and mental health among competitive athletes under chronic stress

Mascaro

Drummond²,

Leota³

et al. 2023

Front. Physiol.

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Objectives: Mental fitness is increasingly considered a key component of an athlete’s competitive arsenal. Active domains of mental fitness include cognitive fitness, sleep, and mental health; and these domains can differ between men and women athletes. Our study investigated the associations of cognitive fitness and gender to sleep and mental health, and the interaction between cognitive fitness and gender on sleep and mental health, in competitive athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: 82 athletes competing at levels from regional/state to international (49% women, M-age = 23.3 years) completed measures of self-control, intolerance of uncertainty, and impulsivity (together representing constructs of cognitive fitness), items about sleep (total sleep time, sleep latency, and mid-sleep time on free days) and a measure of mental health (depression, anxiety, and stress).Results: Women athletes reported lower self-control, higher intolerance of uncertainty, and higher positive urgency impulsivity compared with men athletes. Women reported sleeping later, but this gender difference disappeared after controlling for cognitive fitness. Women athletes—after controlling for cognitive fitness—reported higher depression, anxiety, and stress. Across genders, higher self-control was associated with lower depression, and lower intolerance of uncertainty was associated with lower anxiety. Higher sensation seeking was associated with lower depression and stress, and higher premeditation was associated with greater total sleep time and anxiety. Higher perseverance was associated with higher depression for men—but not women—athletes.Conclusion: Women athletes in our sample reported poorer cognitive fitness and mental health compared to men athletes. Most cognitive fitness factors protected competitive athletes under chronic stress, but some exposed them to poorer mental health. Future work should examine the sources of gender differences. Our findings suggest a need to develop tailored interventions aimed at improving athlete wellbeing, with a particular focus on women athletes.

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Eastward Jet Lag is Associated with Impaired Performance and Game Outcome in the National Basketball Association

Cited by 12 publications

References 52 publications

Jet Lag Does Not Impact Football Performance: Using Randomization Inference to Handle Complexity

Jet Lag Does Not Impact Football Performance: Using Randomization Inference to Handle Complexity

Sleep and Performance in Professional Athletes

Cognitive fitness modulates gender differences in sleep and mental health among competitive athletes under chronic stress

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