Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Chronotypes

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 114 Accesses

Introduction

The circadian timing of physiological functions and daily activities vary among individuals. Based on the peak times of physiological functions, such as blood pressure, hormone secretion, core body temperature, as well as preferences in the timing of sleep, humans can be categorized into three chronotypes: earlier-timed Morning-types, later-timed Evening-types, or between-timed Intermediate-types (Duffy et al. 2001). It has been estimated that genetic differences account for approximately 50% of the interindividual variance seen in adult circadian behavior (Koskenvuo et al. 2007). Chronotype is relative unchangeable once a person reaches adulthood. Slight shifts in circadian timing are however still possible after puberty, but shifting from a purely Morning-type to a purely Evening-type or vice versa is not common among adults. Especially, tendency toward morningness seems to increase during aging. One explanation for this, besides the possible change in the innate clock,...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Broms, U., Pennanen, M., Patja, K., Ollila, H., Korhonen, T., Kankaanpää, A., et al. (2012). Diurnal evening type is associated with current smoking, nicotine dependence and nicotine intake in the population based National FINRISK 2007 Study. Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy, S2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broms, U., Pitkäniemi, J., Bäckmand, H., Heikkilä, K., Koskenvuo, M., Peltonen, M., et al. (2014). Long-term consistency of diurnal-type preferences among men. Chronobiology International, 31(2), 182–188.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duffy, J. F., Rimmer, D. W., & Czeisler, C. A. (2001). Association of intrinsic circadian period with morningness–eveningness, usual wake time, and circadian phase. Behavioral Neuroscience, 115(4), 895.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Konttinen, H., Kronholm, E., Partonen, T., Kanerva, N., Männistö, S., & Haukkala, A. (2014). Morningness–eveningness, depressive symptoms, and emotional eating: A population-based study. Chronobiology International, 31(4), 554–563.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koskenvuo, M., Hublin, C., Partinen, M., HEIKKILÄ, K., & Kaprio, J. (2007). Heritability of diurnal type: A nationwide study of 8753 adult twin pairs. Journal of Sleep Research, 16(2), 156–162.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Merikanto, I., Kronholm, E., Peltonen, M., Laatikainen, T., Lahti, T., & Partonen, T. (2012). Relation of chronotype to sleep complaints in the general Finnish population. Chronobiology International, 29(3), 311–317. doi:10.3109/07420528.2012.655870.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Merikanto, I., Lahti, T., Puolijoki, H., Vanhala, M., Peltonen, M., Laatikainen, T., et al. (2013). Associations of Chronotype and sleep with cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. Chronobiology International, 30(4), 470–477. doi:10.3109/07420528.2012.741171.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Merikanto, I., Englund, A., Kronholm, E., Laatikainen, T., Peltonen, M., Vartiainen, E., & Partonen, T. (2014a). Evening chronotypes have the increased odds for bronchial asthma and nocturnal asthma. Chronobiology International, 31(1), 95–101.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Merikanto, I., Lahti, T., Seitsalo, S., Kronholm, E., Laatikainen, T., Peltonen, M., et al. (2014b). Behavioral trait of morningness-eveningness in association with articular and spinal diseases in a population. PloS One, 9(12), e114635. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114635.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Merikanto, I., Kronholm, E., Peltonen, M., Laatikainen, T., Vartiainen, E., & Partonen, T. (2015). Circadian preference links to depression in general adult population. Journal of Affective Disorders, 188, 143–148. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2015.08.061.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roenneberg, T., Wirz-Justice, A., & Merrow, M. (2003). Life between clocks: Daily temporal patterns of human chronotypes. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 18(1), 80–90.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, N. F., Buchwald, D., & Harden, K. P. (2013). A twin study of genetic influences on diurnal preference and risk for alcohol use outcomes. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine: JCSM, 9(12), 1333.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

    Ilona Merikanto

Authors
  1. Ilona Merikanto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ilona Merikanto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Julie Schermer

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Merikanto, I. (2017). Chronotypes. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_738-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_738-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation