A new analysis of National Football League results suggests that the body’s natural circadian timing may give a performance advantage to West Coast teams in games against East Coast teams that start after 8 p.m. Eastern time. During East vs. West night games over the last 40 years, West Coast teams beat the Las Vegas point spread in 66 percent of the games. For daytime games there was no significant advantage for West or East Coast teams. The authors suggest that these night games may give West Coast teams an athletic advantage over East Coast teams by allowing their players to compete at a body clock time that is closer to their athletic peak than their opponents. The results are published in the December issue of the journal Sleep.
