International athletes often travel to several continents and across many time zones for training and competitions.

This poses a challenge for both mind and body to make sudden changes in the 24-h activity schedule, since intercontinental air travels do not leave enough time to undergo a gradual adjustment to a new local time.

It is generally suggested that if more than 3-4 time zones are crossed, certain biological functions are disturbed and temporary impairment in performance may arise. Therefore, it is important for an athlete to know what biological (physiological and mental) functions that undergo rhythmic changes and what factors that governed this rhythmicity. This will perhaps make the athlete more aware of the factors that may disturb performance and more motivated to follow the guidelines for optimizing time acclimatization.

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