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 Athletes' performances are best predicted by how long it's been
since their body's natural wake-up time, researchers found.
“The reason why we did this study is that all the existing
literature talking about circadian rhythm in sports performance came
to the same conclusion: that athletes give their best performance in
the evening,” said Roland Brandstaetter, the study’s senior author
from the University of Birmingham in the UK.
As reported in the journal Current Biology, Brandstaetter and
colleagues studied the performance of 121 athletes who competed in
competitions.
When the researchers separated the athletes into three groups based
on their internal clocks, they found that those who naturally get up
early reached peak performance in the early afternoon. Those who
naturally sleep the latest would likely reach their peak in the
evening.
Specifically, natural early and intermediate risers reached their
peak performances about six hours after their internal wakeup time.
Late risers reached their peaks about 11 hours after their internal
wakeup time.
Overall, the researchers found that individual performance during
the day can vary by 7 to 10 percent among early and intermediate
risers, and by up to 26 percent among late risers.
The researchers say that just a 1 percent improvement among the
fourth place athletes in the women’s road race, 400 meter swim or
400 meter sprint at the 2008 Olympics may have propelled them to a
gold medal.
Brandstaetter said the improvements in peak performance may easily
apply to areas other than sports.
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“Physical performance and mental performance go hand in hand,” he
said. “If you’re physically exhausted, then your brain isn’t working
either. . . . Also, if you’re mentally tired, you won’t be at the
top of your physical performance.”
While it's possible to change the body’s internal clock,
Brandstaetter said it takes time.
“If you just change your wakeup time on the day of the competition
or the day of your performance, it wouldn’t make much of a
difference,” he said. “You would need to start in advance and
retrain your biological clock.”
Brandstaetter said it might be difficult for people to know when
their internal wakeup times are. It’s not simply the time the alarm
clock goes off in the morning.
“If you’re really agenda free and not going out until one o’clock in
the morning, then you start getting an idea about it,” he said.
“Try to listen and understand your internal biological clock,"
Brandstaetter said. "Try to live with it instead of trying to live
against it.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1vfHoir Current Biology, online January 29,
2015.
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