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Our picks and predictions for the 2026 NFL season
Joe Rivera, Chris Bumbaca and Adam Kaufman break down their predictions for the 2026 NFL season on the newest episode of the Sports Seriously NFL Vodcast.
The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will play one another in Australia on Thursday, Sept. 10, and the result may hinge on one thing not often mentioned earlier than NFL video games.
Travel technique.
The 49ers can have been in Melbourne for every week when the sport kicks off at 10:30 a.m. Friday native time (8:35 p.m. ET Thursday within the U.S.).
By distinction, the Rams arrived in Melbourne on Thursday morning (native time), about 24 hours earlier than kickoff.
“I think it’s absolutely fascinating and I’m really curious as to how this is going to play out and who’s going to win,” Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, instructed USA TODAY Sports.
The first regular-season NFL sport to be performed in Australia is a part of the league’s technique to develop its international fan base. But the 17-hour time distinction between Melbourne and California’s time zone and the staff’s divergent approaches is giving sleep consultants an opportunity to see how the physique adjusts to an enormous time distinction beneath completely different situations.
“Typically as sleep doctors, we advise that if you have a big event, you get there with plenty of time to acclimate to the new schedule,” Abbasi-Feinberg mentioned. “So the idea that the 49ers went a week ago, that would be conventional wisdom to get there, get adjusted to the schedule there. It’s not just about the sleep, it’s about the eating, the training, and the sleep sort of all goes together. And so that is the conventional wisdom.
“Now, what the Rams are doing I believe may be very attention-grabbing.”
Why Rams’ strategy could work. Or fail.
On the face of it, the Rams’ strategy of swooping into Melbourne 24 hours before kickoff might look risky. But Abbasi-Feinberg said the plan appears to be evident.
Sleep on the fight to Melbourne and keep on the California schedule. (When the game kicks off at 10:35 a.m. Friday in Melbourne, it will be 5:35 p.m. Thursday in California.)
“I believe they’re banking on maintaining their circadian rhythms aligned with California time and never doing any switcheroo in any respect,” Abbasi-Feinberg said. “I believe it is actually an attention-grabbing thought to not change your rhythm.
“Honestly, when you have people who work night shifts, we often tell them on the weekends, try to keep that same schedule. And often it’s very difficult for people to do that because they have family obligations, social obligations, et cetera. So in a way, that’s what (the Rams are) doing, is they’re keeping their regular schedule in a sense.”
But can they get enough sleep?
The Rams and the 49ers every chartered Airbus A380 planes, in accordance with the California Post, which included particular person lay-flat beds.
“They’re not going to be sitting in coach with their head dropped a little half U-shaped pillow. So that’s not who we’re talking about,” Abbasi-Feinberg mentioned. “We’re talking about elite athletes who are going to be given the best sleep opportunity on the airplane.
“And so I believe they’ll in all probability get affordable sleep. It’s nonetheless not going to be regular sleep in my thoughts, in all probability. There’s sufficient disruptions except they’ll make the entire aircraft black out, no dinging, no one misbehaving in any manner.”
“And,” she added with mirth, “there is not any ensures on that, after all.”
A third option
Michael Breus, a clinic sleep specialist, told USA TODAY Sports the Rams’ travel strategy is the “best method to go about doing it the place your physique by no means adjustments.”
However, Breus also said there is a caveat: The success of the approach depends on how well-slept the athletes were ahead of the flight.
He also said there is third option: Use an app that provides a schedule for two days before you leave. That schedule involves the use of caffeine, melatonin, napping and light, according to Breus, who noted the schedule depends upon “your path of journey and the place you are going.”
Susheel Patil, system director and section chief for sleep medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland, addressed what appears to have led the 49ers’ to their approach.
From a brain adaption standpoint, according to Patil, the trip from California to Melbourne amounts to crossing seven time zones. Patil said the general principle for adjusting to jet lag is one day for every time zone crossed.
“So every week sort of is sensible,” Patil told USA TODAY Sports, referring to the 49ers’ plan. “They adapt to the native time slowly over time, they get used to the native tradition, they get used to consuming on cue in Australia. All the sunshine publicity, the behavioral exposures assist them prepare their circadian rhythm and would optimize their bodily efficiency in comparison with typically touring the identical day.”
But Patil said the game’s schedule kickoff time, 5:30 p.m. California time, probably factored into the Rams’ plan that he called “circadian pleasant.”
‘We have to stay curious’
The Rams, who are favored to win the 2027 Super Bowl, are 3.5-point favorites to beat the 49ers in Australia.
The scoreboard might help determine which team chose the best travel strategy, but Abbasi-Feinberg offered some final thoughts.
“Now, if the 49ers do extremely a lot better than the Rams, then the query is, is it actually their circadian rhythm and their sleep?” she said. “Is it the staff? What precisely is, why did they enhance or not? But I believe it’s extremely completely different what they’re doing and subsequently very attention-grabbing from a scientific viewpoint.
“I think that the tried-and-true idea of getting someplace early and getting adjusted is the right thing because the human body is very adaptable, but it takes time to acclimate. So I think, to me, that makes more sense, but this other approach is so radically different that I think we have to stay curious and see how it goes.”
But already, Abbasi-Feinberg mentioned, the sport has spurred converation about circadian rhythms, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as the interior physique clock and the sample your physique follows primarily based on a 24-hour day.
“My hope is that it opens their eyes to how much our schedules affect how we perform,” she mentioned, “whether that’s adjusting shift work, traveling for a big business presentation or even just sleeping in too long on the weekend, which can affect our Monday morning performance.
“That is about a lot greater than a sport.”
This story has been up to date with new data.
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