If you are a football fan – and once every four years that means all of us – you’d best make sure you get plenty of sleep this weekend. Why? Because the World Cup kicks off in Brazil next Thursday evening, and timezone differences mean anybody who wants to watch the action will be staying up very late for an entire month.
The earliest games will begin at 8pm UAE time, and some of the big matches in the group stages won’t start until six hours later than that. One fixture, the Group C clash between Ivory Coast and Japan, kicks off at 5am, which will present the difficult trade-off of either staying up all night or power-napping after the “earlier” 2am game between Argentina and Bosnia-Herzogovina.
All of this will, almost certainly, make for some bleary eyed, unfocused meetings in the workplace over the next few weeks and lots of discussions that end with the words: “Can we talk about this later?”
Thankfully, the second half of the tournament coincides with Ramadan, so the reduced working hours may allow time to chip away at your sleep deficit. However, there could still be the risk of disorientation. Arriving at work wearing pyjamas in your national colours is never a good look.
