The Effect of Travel on Sleep and Recovery

Since 1979, 62.2% of NBA games were won by the home team. While home court advantage is ubiquitous across all sports and all levels of competition, its causes are poorly understood. One oft provided explanation of home team advantage is that the home team is spared the rigors of travel. Studies have attempted to quantify this effect by comparing home and away performances and by controlling for factors like days on the road and rest days between games; however, none have had the tools to rigorously quantify the effects of home and away games on objective measures of athlete recovery.

This case study attempts to untangle two phenomena: One, the effect of travel on sleep and recovery, and two, the effect of changing time zones on sleep and recovery.

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