As anybody who has stayed up night after night through the NBA postseason knows, the human body wasn’t built for the late hours of playoff basketball.
Our circadian rhythm typically optimizes for peak performance in the late afternoon and early evening, and it’s not just mental acuity that varies by time of day.
“It’s mainly physical—for example, your muscle strength has a very strong circadian rhythm,” said Steven Lockley, a consultant to athletes and teams around the world as well as the co-founder and chief scientist for Timeshifter, an app that helps people mitigate jet lag.
That lends Western Conference teams an edge, including in the NBA Finals.
During the season, West Coast players are more often playing at 4 p.m. biological clock time (East Coast away games) or 7 p.m. (home), rather than the 7 p.m. (home) and 10 p.m. (away) tips East Coast players are managing.
