Handle daylight saving like a big leaguer

Brandon McDaniel, VP of Player Performance for the Los Angeles Dodgers, described how the front office, medical staff, clubhouse and players work together to help ensure the team can rest and recover as they move across time zones pretty much every three days from March to September.

Lose an hour of sleep Sunday: Clocks 'spring forward,' Daylight Saving Time begins

“We make sure the guys have what they need to recover and get rest on the flight,” described McDaniel. “They wear compression garments on the plane and everyone has access to sleep masks and noise canceling headphones.”

The all-first-class seating aircraft the team charters also helps players get some sleep.

Glasses which block blue light are another tool jet setting athletes to help rest their body clocks. Blue light suppresses your body’s natural production of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate your sleep cycle.

You can limit the impact your phone has on getting to and staying asleep by enabling Night Shift on your iPhone or iPad or enabling a similar blue light filter on Android devices.

When the Dodgers travel from LA to Atlanta or New York any other MLB city outside the west coast, they immediately adopt the new time zone. Going to bed, getting up, and having meals at the usual time for that timezone rather than trying to stay on the old timezone.

The rule of thumb is you’ll need at least day for your body clock to adjust for each hour of change. But we've got an opportunity that MLB players who find themselves in a different city every few days don't: time to prepare.

“But you’ve got to pay the price sometime." McDaniel adds. "Waking up in the middle of the night ready to work out is no good."