http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732455630457811711274260
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Scott Pollack
For decades, the NFL has taken many
measures to make sure talent is spread around the league evenly and that
every team can have a fighting shot. It's natural, then, for teams to
try almost anything, no matter how wild, to gain the slightest
advantage.
This season, however, at least three teams have decided to tackle one of the simplest competitive issues imaginable: making sure their players get enough sleep before games.
The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers spent the summer tearing through sleep studies—some of them commissioned by the U.S. military—looking for ways they might help their players improve their performance by sleeping more like teenagers. "We've looked at quite a few of them," said San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh.
Prior to a 1 p.m. game against the Jets in New Jersey this season, San Francisco moved its entire team to a hotel outside of Youngstown, Ohio—not because they had any particular reason to be in Ohio, but to give the team a chance to get acclimated to Eastern time.
And after sleep specialists visited the Jets earlier this year, linebacker Bryan Thomas said the team has made an extreme effort to make sure everyone is sleeping properly. This includes pre-setting all temperatures in the team hotel rooms to the sleep-therapy recommended 68 degrees and recommending players sleep in pitch-black rooms.
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh, Jim's brother, has begun to take measures to combat jetlag on long trips: Before the Ravens fly west to play San Diego on Nov. 25, their plan is to stay at home but simply start practices and meetings later until they are operating on West Coast-time while in Baltimore.
Football teams that want their players to sleep like teenagers before games aren't an exotic species—bed checks may be as old as the sport itself. Ultimately, though, each player has been left alone to devise their own sleep strategy—and the result is a hodgepodge of theories.
Jets backup quarterback Greg McElroy said he heard about a study in which people under 25 years old operate best on nine hours and 15 minutes of sleep. He noted that that's basically impossible with an NFL schedule. "I don't know if I'll ever have the time to sleep 9:15," McElroy said.
The recent push to maximize sleep patterns is also part of an ongoing effort to combat a famous inequality on Sundays that even the almighty NFL cannot do anything about: time zones.
Because there are only a few time slots NFL teams can play in, a team from California can get stuck with starting times on the East Coast that are the equivalent of 10 a.m. in their hometowns. It's become a fairly desperate problem for West Coast teams. Of the four Pacific-time teams, three of them lost more than 75% of the time over the past decade when playing 1 p.m. games on the East Coast.
The 49ers are 2-15 in such games during that span, and only after Jim Harbaugh took action last season, when he first tried moving the entire team early before a game so they could adjust to Eastern Standard Time. The 49ers have been known to deal with leaving their practice facility early by staging elaborate scheme meetings in the parking lot behind a Holiday Inn.
"It's not necessarily traveling from East to West or West to East that is a deterrent in winning, it's really playing a 10 a.m. body clock game," said 49ers CEO Jed York, who said the Ohio move gives the team a better chance to win than flying out on Friday night when "you're still really on Pacific time."
49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks says the team's sleep strategy is one of the keys to its early success this year. After the detour to Ohio, the 49ers moved on to New York where they thrashed the Jets 34-0. Brooks, who grew up in Virginia, said he frequently flies between the coasts and on the first night back on a new coast, can't sleep at all. Then, he said, he can't get to sleep until 5 a.m. the following night. He said sleep deficiencies have mental and physical effects: forgetting where to be on a specific play or, if you are there, struggling to keep up—at least early in the game.
"To wake up this early and play a game?" 49ers offensive lineman Alex Boone said of 1 p.m. starts, "you've gotta have your body clock ready or else you're going to be as tired as hell. It's hugely important."
Football is unique among major team sports in that there's very little travel involved. Professional basketball teams fly out after games, making for late arrivals but plenty of time for sleep before the next game. Baseball teams spend countless nights on the road, but are in the same city for three or four days, where their sleep schedules can be maintained and monitored by the team.
Of course, NFL players don't have to rely on their coaches for sleep advice. They can always just throw science out the window and rely on a simpler philosophy: It's probably better to go to bed before everyone else does. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently admitted he was in bed at 7:15 p.m. on a Monday night. "Trying to get bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," he said.
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Sleeping Your Way to the Top
To Get an Edge, NFL Teams Meddle With Player Sleep Patterns; the 68-Degree Hotel Room
By KEVIN CLARK
Scott Pollack
At least three NFL teams are going to great lengths to make sure their players sleep like teenage zombies before games.
This season, however, at least three teams have decided to tackle one of the simplest competitive issues imaginable: making sure their players get enough sleep before games.
The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers spent the summer tearing through sleep studies—some of them commissioned by the U.S. military—looking for ways they might help their players improve their performance by sleeping more like teenagers. "We've looked at quite a few of them," said San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh.
Prior to a 1 p.m. game against the Jets in New Jersey this season, San Francisco moved its entire team to a hotel outside of Youngstown, Ohio—not because they had any particular reason to be in Ohio, but to give the team a chance to get acclimated to Eastern time.
And after sleep specialists visited the Jets earlier this year, linebacker Bryan Thomas said the team has made an extreme effort to make sure everyone is sleeping properly. This includes pre-setting all temperatures in the team hotel rooms to the sleep-therapy recommended 68 degrees and recommending players sleep in pitch-black rooms.
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh, Jim's brother, has begun to take measures to combat jetlag on long trips: Before the Ravens fly west to play San Diego on Nov. 25, their plan is to stay at home but simply start practices and meetings later until they are operating on West Coast-time while in Baltimore.
Football teams that want their players to sleep like teenagers before games aren't an exotic species—bed checks may be as old as the sport itself. Ultimately, though, each player has been left alone to devise their own sleep strategy—and the result is a hodgepodge of theories.
Jets backup quarterback Greg McElroy said he heard about a study in which people under 25 years old operate best on nine hours and 15 minutes of sleep. He noted that that's basically impossible with an NFL schedule. "I don't know if I'll ever have the time to sleep 9:15," McElroy said.
The recent push to maximize sleep patterns is also part of an ongoing effort to combat a famous inequality on Sundays that even the almighty NFL cannot do anything about: time zones.
Because there are only a few time slots NFL teams can play in, a team from California can get stuck with starting times on the East Coast that are the equivalent of 10 a.m. in their hometowns. It's become a fairly desperate problem for West Coast teams. Of the four Pacific-time teams, three of them lost more than 75% of the time over the past decade when playing 1 p.m. games on the East Coast.
The 49ers are 2-15 in such games during that span, and only after Jim Harbaugh took action last season, when he first tried moving the entire team early before a game so they could adjust to Eastern Standard Time. The 49ers have been known to deal with leaving their practice facility early by staging elaborate scheme meetings in the parking lot behind a Holiday Inn.
"It's not necessarily traveling from East to West or West to East that is a deterrent in winning, it's really playing a 10 a.m. body clock game," said 49ers CEO Jed York, who said the Ohio move gives the team a better chance to win than flying out on Friday night when "you're still really on Pacific time."
49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks says the team's sleep strategy is one of the keys to its early success this year. After the detour to Ohio, the 49ers moved on to New York where they thrashed the Jets 34-0. Brooks, who grew up in Virginia, said he frequently flies between the coasts and on the first night back on a new coast, can't sleep at all. Then, he said, he can't get to sleep until 5 a.m. the following night. He said sleep deficiencies have mental and physical effects: forgetting where to be on a specific play or, if you are there, struggling to keep up—at least early in the game.
"To wake up this early and play a game?" 49ers offensive lineman Alex Boone said of 1 p.m. starts, "you've gotta have your body clock ready or else you're going to be as tired as hell. It's hugely important."
Football is unique among major team sports in that there's very little travel involved. Professional basketball teams fly out after games, making for late arrivals but plenty of time for sleep before the next game. Baseball teams spend countless nights on the road, but are in the same city for three or four days, where their sleep schedules can be maintained and monitored by the team.
Of course, NFL players don't have to rely on their coaches for sleep advice. They can always just throw science out the window and rely on a simpler philosophy: It's probably better to go to bed before everyone else does. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently admitted he was in bed at 7:15 p.m. on a Monday night. "Trying to get bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," he said.
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