POTENTIAL IMPACT OF CIRCADIAN DISRUPTION (JET-LAG) ON PROFESSIONAL SPORTS PERFORMANCE

Abstract

SESSION TITLE: Electronic Top Posters SESSION TYPE: Original Inv Poster Discussion PRESENTED ON: 10/08/2018 01:15 PM - 02:15 PM PURPOSE: Circadian rhythm disruption (jet-lag) resulting from east-west travel can influence professional sports performance. In a prior analysis, rest & travel distance/direction impacted scoring in basketball. However, the study did not quantify each team’s jet-lag, making it possible that some aspects of circadian disruption were not fully described. We quantified each National Basketball Association team’s degree of circadian disruption at game-time & examined its relationship to performance during 13 seasons. METHODS: We analyzed 15,347 regular season games (2000-2013). Using home/visitor team time-zone movements and prior circadian status, we computed a “jet-lag value” for each game. For each time-zone crossed, +1 point was assigned for eastward & -1 for westward travel. For each 24 hours spent within a time-zone, the jet-lag value returned one point towards zero. A team was jet-lagged if it moved across ≥2 time-zones & circadian disruption at game-time was ≥(+1) or ≤(-1). Performance was assessed descriptively and by multivariate regression with game time-zone, team variables, travel direction & jet-lag as independent variables. Home/visitor points, win-margin & beating Las Vegas odds were dependent variables. RESULTS: Home teams won 60.3% of games by mean 3.23 points (home-99.07, visitor-95.84), beat the Vegas 49.5% & over/under lines 49.8% of the time. Scoring varied according to game time-zone. Home-team scoring was highest in Mountain (102.56) & lowest in Eastern (97.66) zone (p≤0.0001). Visitor scoring was highest (97.69) in Pacific & lowest in Eastern (95.37) [p<0.0001]. For home games, changes in home/visitor scoring were not significant with rest days’ between games. For visitor games, visitor scores increased from 95.18 (1 day rest) to 97.11 at five days rest (p<0.0001) and home team win margin decreased from 4.3 (1 day rest) to 0.471 at five days rest (p<0.0001). In multivariate regression, with visitor team westward jet-lagged & home team non-jetlagged, home wins (60% to 68%, p=0.092) & scoring (99.07 to 99.31, p≤0.0001) increased, score margin decreased (3.24 to 2.83, p=0.031), and visitor points increased (95.84 to 96.49, p=0.083). When visitor was eastward jet-lagged & home team non-jetlagged, home (99.07 to 99.31, p=0.045) and visitor scoring increased (95.84 to 97.15, p=0.0003) while changes in other measures were non-significant. With jet-lagged home teams & non-jetlagged visitors, we found no significant differences in measures. CONCLUSIONS: When non-jet lagged home teams played jet-lagged visitors, scoring of both teams was higher. Home team win percentage increased significantly when playing westward jet-lagged visitors. Teams playing under their optimal circadian conditions may outscore their opponents (rather than limiting their scoring). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Jet-lag appears to modestly affect performances. Teams playing under optimal circadian conditions may be at an advantage. DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Dipak Chandy, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Akshay Khatri, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Christopher Nabors, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Srikanth Yandrapalli, source=Web Response