How jet lag impairs Major League Baseball performance

Laboratory studies have demonstrated that circadian clocks align physiology and behavior to 24-h environmental cycles. Examination of athletic performance has been used to discern the functions of these clocks in humans outside of controlled settings. Here, the authors examined the effects of jet lag, that is, travel that shifts the alignment of 24-h environmental cycles relative to the endogenous circadian clock, on specific performance metrics in Major League Baseball. Accounting for potential differences in home and away performance, travel direction, and team confounding variables, the authors observed that jet-lag effects were largely evident after eastward travel with very limited effects after westward travel, consistent with the >24-h period length of the human circadian clock. Surprisingly, the authors found that jet lag impaired major parameters of home-team offensive performance, for example, slugging percentage, but did not similarly affect away-team offensive performance. On the other hand, jet lag impacted both home and away defensive performance. Remarkably, the vast majority of these effects for both home and away teams could be explained by a single measure, home runs allowed. Rather than uniform effects, these results reveal surprisingly specific effects of circadian misalignment on athletic performance under natural conditions.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608847114
• Record URL:
  http://www.pnas.org/content/114/6/1407.abstract
• Authors:
  • Song, Alex
  • Severini, Thomas
  • Allada, Ravi
• Publication Date: 2017-2-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 1407-1412
• Serial:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Volume: 114
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
  • EISSN: 1091-6490
  • Serial URL: http://www.pnas.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air travel; Circadian rhythms; Jet lag; Personnel performance
• Uncontrolled Terms: Baseball; Professional athletes
• Subject Areas: Environment; Passenger Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01633875
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 1 2017 9:36AM