In high-performance environments, preparation is everything. Organisations analyse opponents, refine strategies, and fine-tune output down to the last millisecond. But one variable that often goes underprepared is jet lag.

Picture this: you’ve just stepped off a long-haul flight and are expected to perform at your best in a completely different time zone. Your brain still thinks it’s 3am. Your body hasn’t caught up. But the stopwatch doesn’t care.

Jet lag is succinctly defined as the desynchronisation between your body clock and the local time-zone.

Jet lag isn’t just a minor inconvenience. It’s a strategic blind spot. And in a world where marginal gains separate podiums from pack-fillers, this blind spot is costing readiness, performance, and longevity.

At Phaze, we consider the circadian performance period – the science and strategy of aligning the internal body clock to the demands of high-stakes performance, not just the time-zone. When managed properly, it’s a lever. When ignored, it’s a liability.

 

Why jet lag hurts performance

Jet lag is more than just tiredness – it’s a biological mismatch. When your internal clock and circadian rhythms fall out of sync with local time, that affects your performance.

It doesn’t just affect sleep. It disrupts hormones, metabolism, cognition, and physical output. When misaligned, the body doesn’t function as it should, and that shows up in performance. 

Yet most travel strategies still rely on generic advice. But circadian disruption isn’t one-size-fits-all, each individual responds differently depending on their biology, habits, and schedule.

When your circadian rhythm is off, here’s what typically follows:

• Sleep worsens: An inability to fall asleep and trouble staying asleep are very common symptoms.
• Cognitive function declines: Alertness, focus, and complex decision-making task ability suffer.
• Physical performance drops: Strength, coordination, and recovery can be impaired.
• Mood and motivation fluctuate: Cortisol, body temperature and melatonin rhythms are disrupted.

Dr Ian Dunican, Head of Scientific Development at Phaze, explains:

“Jet lag and travel fatigue aren’t just minor inconveniences. They’re silent killers of performance and recovery. Their effects can be both acute and cumulative, and over time, they can seriously undermine physical and cognitive output.”

Whether it’s elite athletes, pit crews, or executive teams, individuals and organisations operating across time zones face this challenge routinely and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

 

What the research and performance experts are telling us

Organisations and performance consultants are starting to understand just how steep the cost of unmanaged jet lag can be.

To name just a few examples, research has shown that basketball free-throw accuracy can decline [1], and defensive performance in baseball can also be impaired [2]. In fact, in Major League Baseball, teams travelling eastward to play at home after an away game were affected to such a degree that it effectively cancelled out the usual home-field advantage. Beyond sport-specific performance, broader domains such as sleep quality, heart rate variability, and the ability to perform both physical and cognitive tasks are also diminished with jet lag [3,4,5].

At Phaze, we’ve seen this echoed across performance-driven organisations, from international football teams to refereeing bodies. When coaches and consultants treat circadian science like any other performance variable, they unlock gains others are still giving away.

 

Why manual plans & instincts aren’t enough anymore

Most organisations aren’t ignoring travel entirely, but they are relying on one-dimensional plans advising on instinct or misinformed science, such as: 

• Fasting during flights
• Melatonin on arrival
• Sleep when you can
• Always view light on arrival
• Exercise to shake off the fatigue

These approaches may, in some cases, offer partial benefit but may also hinder adaptation as they lack the precision required to meet today’s demands. And most importantly, they don’t personalise. Everyone’s sleep and body clock needs are different – as we covered previously here. What works for one person’s sleep window, light exposure, or recovery needs won’t necessarily work for another.

Manual PDFs plans are still being used. Gut feel is still driving decisions. And jet lag remains a recurring villain.

Phaze is a circadian performance system, not just an app, but an integrated solution. Our coaching hub gives staff oversight across entire organisations, while our personalised app delivers adaptive guidance to each individual, shaped by real-time inputs like light, travel, and performance demands.

 

Turning jet lag into a strategic lever

What if you could use travel to your advantage? What if instead of accepting the dip, you adjusted your body clock so precisely that you peaked on arrival?

That’s the Phaze promise. We help organisations and individuals:

• Align circadian rhythms to critical moments of performance
• Adapt schedules dynamically – even with delays or last-minute shifts
• Shift from “arrive and recover” to “arrive and perform”
• Deliver personalised, adaptive plans based on each individual’s travel, sleep, and performance profile

Our dual workflows are designed to support both individual travellers preparing for peak performance, whether that’s a race, a game, or a high-stakes meeting – and group travel, such as sports teams or business units. Whatever the context, Phaze provides tailored guidance so every traveller arrives ready to perform at their best

And it’s all backed by validated science – from real-time light tracking to chronotype-informed scheduling.

 

How coaches and consultants can take control of circadian disruption

Here are practical ways performance staff and consultants can start turning the tide:

1. Consider the individual: Consider one’s sleep need, bed/wake time, current sleep debt, chronotype and travel history. It’s also essential not to overlook the direction of travel and whether an advance or delay strategy of the body clock is required.
2. Shift sleep with intention: Prepare individuals for new time zones before they leave. Use light exposure, exercise and naps strategically, not randomly.
3. Hydrate, fuel, and track: Stay on top of hydration and nutrition pre-, during-, and post-travel. Avoid alcohol and poorly timed caffeine, which can prolong desynchronisation.
4. Use tools built for the job: Leverage systems like Phaze to manage schedules at scale, across organisations, and in real time. It’s not just about who slept, it’s about when and how that sleep aligned with what mattered.

At the elite level, every detail counts.

The best organisations in the world are no longer treating jet lag as a cost of competition. They’re treating it as a controllable variable, a chance to be 1% better when it matters most.

At Phaze, we’re building the category of circadian performance. We combine science, field experience, and intelligent technology into one personalised system built for high-performance organisations and the individuals inside them.

Because travel isn’t going away, but performance drops can.