Daylight Savings has come to an end. In addition to impacting our lives, the change also plays a major role for athletes. Notably, with the time change taking place this past Sunday, the NFL was certainly affected.
In the end, it is only a one hour difference -- at least in places where daylight savings occurs -- but every hour matters and it plays more of a role in the schedules of NFL players than fans may imagine.
Today, we will be investigating the effects of Daylight Savings on NFL players and the performance of the teams they play on.
Impact on NFL Schedules
NFL players, and athletes in general, tend to find and stick to specific routines. Daylight Savings throws curveballs at those routines, however.
Gaining the extra hour of sleep isn't something most people will complain about. Quality of sleep, though, may still be impacted.
Sleep researcher Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern Medicine in Chicago explained that even an hour change in one's sleep schedule can play a role in their sleep quality, via Claire Savage and Melissa Perez Winder of apnews.com.
"Just that one hour can change the amount of sleep you get, the quality of sleep that you get," Zee said.
Zee went on to state how this can lead to potential accidents. People's awareness levels become in question given the difference in their sleep. It goes without saying, but football players certainly need to be alert while on the field.
Sleep is important. A bad night's sleep impacts all of our lives, and the same can be said for athletes. Dr. Sara Benjamin of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine shared more intriguing information on its effect on sleep, per healthline.com.
"In mammals, including humans, the strongest time signal is light," Benjamin said. "The system that coordinates our sleep/wake rhythm is the suprachiasmatic nucleus which is in the anterior hypothalamus which is directly above the optic chiasm.
"This system receives light input from photosensitive retinal ganglion cells and then sends signals to other regions of the hypothalamus to regulate the timing of different body systems, including when different hormones are released, when we want to eat, and when to sleep or be awake. Light is one factor that influences our internal clocks, there is also a genetic factor that influences if we tend to be 'night owls' or 'larks.'"
The impact of light is immense as well. The fact that it gets light earlier in the morning, but dark earlier in the evening has underlying effects. So although sleep is the important talking point here, there are other mental impacts to consider as a result of the time change.
So how did the end of Daylight Savings affect NFL players in Week 9?
NFL Week 9 Results
We will now take a look at Sunday's results to see which players saw drastic changes in their performance. It goes without saying, but some players may have simply performed better just because they had a good day.
Perhaps, though, Daylight Savings played a role.
Players Who Stepped Up
Some players such as C.J. Stroud excelled Sunday despite the time change. Stroud led the Houston Texans to a thrilling 39-37 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, throwing for five touchdowns and a rookie-record 470 passing yards.
Stroud entered the game with just nine total touchdown passes on the season. The most passing yards he recorded an NFL game previously was 384.
He clearly benefited from the extra hour of sleep. Stroud is going to have a great career and will surely have no shortage of memorable games, but his Week 9 performance will likely be one of his best.
Dak Prescott (374 passing yards, two passing TDs), Keaton Mitchell (138 rushing yards, one TD), CeeDee Lamb (191 receiving yards, 11 receptions), Noah Brown (153 receiving yards, one receiving touchdown and Dalton Schultz (130 receiving yards, 10 receptions, one receiving touchdown) were other players who stepped up in Week 9.
However, there were players who struggled mightily.
Players Who Struggled
Patrick Mahomes and Tua Tagovailoa both had a rough go of it, but they played in Germany, so we will omit them for the most part
Lamar Jackson did not perform well despite the Baltimore Ravens defeating the Seattle Seahawks, 37-3. Typically, fans would expect Jackson to have had a major impact in a game that saw Baltimore score 37 points.
That was not the case, however.
It should be noted that he was efficient, going 21-of-26 through the air. Jackson only threw for 187 yards and failed to record a passing touchdown. He did rush for 60 yards, but this wasn't a great performance by the superstar.
Maybe the end of Daylight Savings had something to do with that.
Speaking of the Ravens-Seahawks game, Geno Smith went just 13-of-28 through the air with 157 passing yards, no touchdowns and one interception. Smith's frustrations on the field played a big role in Seattle's lack of scoring.
Tyson Bagent was able to produce a pair of passing touchdowns in the Chicago Bears' loss to the New Orleans Saints. He added 220 yards through the air. However, Bagent was picked off three times and ultimately finished with four turnovers.
Summary
People sometimes forget that professional athletes are also humans. They feel the same effects as us when it comes to matters such as Daylight Savings time.
In the end, based on the varied different performances of players, it seems that the change did play a role to an extent. It is incredible that just one hour can make such a dramatic difference.
It may take a few days, but most people will quickly adjust to the new schedule. People may feel more energized in the morning, but could grow tired earlier in the night. Light's impact, which was discussed earlier, is something to consider.
As for NFL players, they should all be adjusted to the change by next week, but the Week 9 results are already in the books.
