Timestamp alignment is the process of matching a dose event to the downstream physiological signals it might be affecting, accounting for the compound's pharmacokinetics and the measurement cadence of each signal. A caffeine dose at 7am and an elevated HRV reading from the previous night are not comparable events; the tool should know that.
Why it matters
Supplement evaluation lives or dies on correct alignment. If a magnesium dose at 9pm is mis-aligned with a sleep-stage read from the prior night, the review screen will show noise instead of signal. If a creatine loading period is scored against a bloodwork draw that was collected the day before loading began, the delta is invisible. Alignment is the boring mechanical layer that makes every other outcome meaningful, and it is what separates a useful correlation metadata read from spurious matching.
Alignment rules Unfair uses
Different compounds have different useful windows. Unfair's default alignment logic:
| Compound class | Typical action window | Aligned outcome window |
|---|---|---|
| Stimulants (caffeine, nicotine) | 0–6 hours post-dose | Same-day focus, HR, afternoon sleep pressure |
| Sleep supports (magnesium, glycine, apigenin, melatonin) | 0–3 hours post-dose | That night's sleep and next-morning readiness |
| Adaptogens (ashwagandha, rhodiola) | Daily dosing, 4–8 week lag | Multi-week trend in stress and subjective energy |
| Omega-3, vitamin D | Weeks-to-months lag | Next blood panel, HRV and lipid trend over months |
| Creatine | 2–4 week loading lag | Strength and power outputs over the next cycle |
These are starting points, not fixed rules. The dose window and the user's actual timing override the defaults where they conflict.
Timezone and daylight-savings handling
Timestamp alignment breaks quietly when timezones change. Unfair stores every dose and every synced signal with an explicit UTC offset, then renders in local time on the review screen. Travel days and daylight-savings transitions are flagged on the chart so the user does not misread a 1-hour shift in sleep-onset time as a compound effect.
Known limits
- For slow-acting compounds, alignment is approximate. A vitamin D dose today does not cleanly map to any single day's outcome; it maps to a 4–12 week trajectory.
- For compounds with long half-lives, carryover from prior doses muddies a strict 1:1 alignment — see the washout period discussion.
- Self-reported dose times drift by 5–20 minutes from true ingestion time for most users, which is fine for daily-level analysis but matters for acute-effect windows.
How this appears in Unfair
Alignment runs quietly behind the review screen, the feedback loop, and the ranked output. The user sees the output — which stacks moved which outcomes — not the machinery.
Clinical safety note
Alignment errors in early data mean early conclusions about a stack are lower confidence. Give any new compound at least one full stack cycle of clean alignment before making a keep-or-cut call.