Listening to your body clock can help improve performance
In all walks of life we know people who perform better at different times of the day and whether it is at work, school or even at home we can easily think of many examples of people who are either early risers or night owls. It is no different when it comes to sport as there are many athletes who may be at their best in the early morning, and others in the afternoon or evening, but the difficulty is that they generally don’t decide at what time they perform in the big events. As a result, the individual body clock is another factor that athletes and coaches need to take into consideration when following their training program with a view to achieving peak performance.
Understanding the internal biological clock
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. In discussing their research in Internal Biological Clocks and Sport Performance, Dr Nicky Keay reveals why this research is of particular interest to athletes.
The importance of integration of lifestyle factors, such as timing of eating, activity and sleep with our internal biological clocks is revealed in situations of circadian misalignment that lead to suboptimal health and disease states in the longer term. Consideration of our biochronometers is especially important for athletes in order to synchronize periodized training, nutrition and recovery and thus optimize health and sports performance
Naturally a research topic that claims Nobel Prize recognition can be somewhat complicated to digest, but in summing up she points out that:-
Respecting your internal biological clocks and integrating your lifestyle and your training, nutrition and recovery with these intrinsic pacemakers in mind will optimize health and performance
Peak times for athletes can vary
While this research may be very detailed there are many studies that illustrate the importance of understanding an athlete’s body clock. Among them is a study carried out by Roland Brandstaetter and Elise Facer-Childs at the University of Birmingham in the UK, entitled The Impact of Circadian Phenotype and Time since Awakening on Diurnal Performance in Athletes, which concludes that body rhythms can be divided into three general categories known as chronotypes / circadian phenotypes:-
- Early (often referred to as morning larks)
- Intermediate (afternooners) and
- Late (often referred to as nightowls)
To highlight how the genetic make-up of an athlete can impact on their optimum time for training, they analyzed the various performances of 20 female hockey players who performed bleep tests at at six different times between 7am and 10pm. The participants filled out a questionnaire to determine if they fell into the category of early, intermediate or late.
The research revealed that the ‘early’ category peaked around Noon, ‘intermediate’ peaked at 4pm and ‘late’ were at their best at 8pm. The significance was highlighted in an NHS article entitled ‘Body clock may have effect on sporting peak performance’ which stated that the gap between the best and worst performance, when separated out by circadian phenotype, was 26% in the owls. It was less in larks (7.6% variation) and intermediates (10.0%). Owls needed much longer after waking (around 11 hours) than larks before peak performance could be produced. To put this into context, the researchers reported the variation in time performance between first and seventh place at the 2012 London Olympic Games 100m sprint men’s final was less than 5%.
So what can you do about it?
So research suggests there could be big benefits for you by syncing important aspects of your life to your chronotype but what do you do when that is not possible? Schools, office jobs and sports leagues are still all designed around a lark’s schedule. Not everyone’s clock is the same.
In Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem, the author refers to Dr. Matthew Walker, author of Why we Sleep, who states:-
When night owls are forced to rise early, their prefrontal cortex, which controls sophisticated thought processes and logical reasoning, “remains in a disabled, or ‘offline,’ state ….Like a cold engine in an early-morning start, it takes a long time before it warms up to operating temperature
Can you train yourself to adjust similar to how you adapt after jet lag?
A recent study by the universities of Birmingham and Surrey and Monash seems to suggest that you can.
22 healthy individuals participated in the study. For a period of three weeks participants in the experimental group were asked to:
- Wake up 2-3 hours before regular wake up time and maximize outdoor light during the mornings
- Go to bed 2-3 hours before habitual bedtime and limit light exposure in the evening
- Keep sleep/wake times fixed on both work days and free days
- Have breakfast as soon as possible after waking up
- Eat lunch at the same time each day and
- Refrain from eating dinner after 7pm
This combination of change in sleep hours and improved sleep hygiene resulted in an increase in reaction time and physical performance during the morning time as well as a shift in peak performance times from evening to afternoon. Participants also felt a decrease in feelings of stress and depression. So establishing simple routines and practicing better sleep hygiene could help ‘night owls’ adjust their body clocks and improve both their physical and mental health.
Listen to your body through monitoring
For athletes to perform at their best at a specific time, you have to retrain their body clocks. Of course to learn more about our bodies we need to listen to them and that is where the process of monitoring areas such as training, sleep, nutrition is so important. Metrifit offers athlete centric, simple and effective monitoring with clear concise results leading to actionable intelligence. It provides an immediate snap shot of athlete well-being across a number of metrics such as sleep, stress, readiness to perform, muscle soreness and training loads as well as communication and feedback portals to support the development of an optimal environment for success. To find out more visit our Metrifit Product Overview page or contact us at for a free demo.
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References
Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
Night owls can ‘retrain’ their body clocks to improve mental well-being and performance
Internal Biological Clocks and Sport Performance
The Impact of Circadian Phenotype and Time since Awakening on Diurnal Performance in Athletes
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