Consequences of adolescent's evening preference on psychological functioning: a review

This review provides an overview of the role of circadian preference in psychological functioning of adolescents taking into account their shift to eveningness during this stage of life. After a brief explanation about morningness/eveningness and other terms related, an overview of the changes that occur on three of the most important areas in the adolescent‟s life is presented: school performance, personality styles, and health. Consequences of evening preference on school achievement are considered from the analysis of the relevance of sleep debt and time-of-day in cognition and mood aspects. In general, students who are able to choose activity times coinciding with their preferred times may have a greater opportunity to optimize their performance. The personality styles and health of morning and evening types are also important factors related to school and family adaptation. At last, some recommendations and conclusions in order to promote a healthy psychological functioning are described.

Morningness-eveningness and anxiety among adults: A matter of sex/gender?

People’s health and well-being may be determined by the interaction of endogenous and external rhythms. Late chronotypes should become anxious because of the demand to perform tasks in a society oriented preferentially to morning work. In this study, we examined the relationship between morningness and anxiety in 559 adults (age range 40–63 years) from rural environments who completed morningness–eveningness and anxiety measures. Results indicated a negative correlation between morningness and anxiety in women, but not in men, suggesting the relevance of gender-related variables. When demographic characteristics were considered, women’s anxiety was predicted by low educational level and eveningness, whereas men’s anxiety was predicted by being single, having children, being unemployed, and eveningness. Some hypotheses of gender-related social roles are postulated as a possible explanation of the results.

Morningness-eveningness and sleep habits among adolescents: age and gender differences

Previous research has indicated the need to use large samples in different cultural contexts in order to clarify age and gender differences on morningness-eveningness and sleep habits. The goal of our research was to study the relationship between morningness-eveningness and sleep habits in a large sample of 2,649 adolescents between 12 and 16 years. The Morningness- Eveningness Scale for Children and an adaptation of the School Sleep Habits Survey measures were used. Results indicated a greater tendency toward eveningness with age and higher eveningness in 13- and 14-year-old girls. Older adolescents claimed later rising time on weekends, later bedtime and shorter sleep length, and greater social jetlag, weekend rise time delay, and weekend bedtime delay. Girls reported earlier rising time on weekdays, later rising time on weekends, longer sleep length on weekends, and greater social jetlag and weekend rising time delay. Lastly, evening oriented adolescents claimed later rising time and bedtime, shorter sleep length on weekdays but longer sleep duration on weekends, and greater social jetlag, weekend rising time delay, and weekend bedtime delay.

Chronotype and time-of-day effects on mood during school day

Existing evidence suggests an association between mood, time-of-day and Morningness-Eveningness (M-E). Since few studies have been carried out among adolescents, in this study daily mood fluctuations were analyzed in the naturalistic school context during two days in order to test how chronotype and time-of-day are related to mood during the school schedule period and check if sleep length is involved in the above relation. A sample of 655 adolescents (12-16 years) reported mood levels (current level of pleasantness) three times during school day (8:10-8:30 h, 10:20-11:40 h, 13:50-14:10 h). They also reported M-E preference and time in bed. Neither age nor sex was related to mood. However, the results indicated that regardless of chronotype mood increased throughout the school day from the lowest morning levels. Moreover, morning types showed better mood compared to other chronotypes, while evening types exhibited the lowest mood. Evening oriented students slept less than other chronotypes, but time in bed was not involved in the relationship between chronotype and mood. These results suggest that it is not shortened sleep duration responsible for decreased mood in evening oriented students.

Morningness-eveningness and sociosexuality: Evening females are less restricted than morning ones

Sociosexual orientation is a construct describing the propensity to engage in casual sex and sexual activity in uncommitted relationships, varying from restricted to unrestricted orientation. The personality profile of people exhibiting unrestricted sociosexuality matches a personality profile related to eveningness. Previous research on sociosexuality and morningness–eveningness is scarce, however, and conducted only with male participants. The present study aimed at testing whether eveningness is related to unrestricted sociosexuality in both genders. Participants were 352 (62.8% female) Poles aged between 17 and 57. They completed the reduced morningness–eveningness Questionnaire and the revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory, consisting of three facets: behavior, attitude, and desire. The results revealed that females were more restricted than males in all facets of sociosexuality. Moreover, in both genders older age was related to less restricted behavior and attitude. Analyses showed that morningness– eveningness was unrelated to sociosexuality in males, but in females eveningness was linked to less restricted global sociosexuality .Eveningness in females could be regarded as a contributory factor to the instability of romantic relationships and high-risk sexual behaviors.