Our internal body clock has such a dramatic impact on sporting ability that it could alter the chances of Olympic gold, say researchers. BBC News reports that the team at the University of Birmingham showed performance times varied by 26% throughout the day. Early risers reached their athletic peak around lunchtime, while night owls were best in the evening. The researchers say it could even explain why Spanish teams have more success in European football.
The body clock controls everything – from alertness to the risk of a heart attack – in a daily rhythm. Some aspects of sporting ability were thought to peak in early afternoon but this study suggests each competitor's sleeping habits have a powerful impact.
They took 20 female hockey players and asked them to perform a series of 20 metre runs in shorter and shorter times. And they did it at six different times of day between 07:00 and 22:00. The results showed a peak performance in late afternoon, but then the scientists looked separately at early-type people, late-type people and those in the middle. This time the gap between the best and worst times was 26%, and a far more complicated picture emerged.
Lead researcher Dr Roland Brandstaetter said: "Athletes and coaches would benefit greatly if they knew when optimal or sub-optimal performance time was." He said a 1% difference in performance would be the difference between fourth place and a medal in many Olympic events.
Body clocks can be adjusted. "So if you're an early type in a competition in the evening, then you're impaired, so you could adjust sleeping times to the competition," Brandstaetter said.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Thomas Kantermann, from the University of Groningen and the scientific manager of the ChronoCity project in Germany, said: "The study adds to our understanding about the importance of circadian biology (body clocks) and internal time in physical performance. Only by taking internal time into account can true and fair assessments of human performance become possible.”
[link url="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30957720"]Full BBC News report[/link]
[link url="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)01639-X"]Current Biology abstract[/link]