Developmental Perspectives on Morningness-Eveningness and Social Interactions

Abstract

Developmental perspectives on sleep/wake rhythmicity have been neglected in research, yet evidence from chronobiological sources, infant sleep data, and adult light treatment studies suggest continuities in individual differences in internal synchronization to light-dark cycles. Developmental systems suggest maintenance through strong contextual constraints, perturbed only by unusual alterations in social demands and light exposure, such as shift work. Retrospective data from university students, employing the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), supported predicted continuity of sleep/wake patterns and associated states of alertness and fatigue as a function of time of day as well as relations with different patterns of social interactions with parents over daily routines in childhood and adolescence. Eveningness is related to greater difficulty meeting familial and social demands for morning performance than Morningness.

Chronotype ontogeny related to gender

“…Other changes in the elderly include a reduction in the amplitude of circadian rhythms and reduced tolerance to abrupt phase changes (15). It has been suggested that chronotype remains relatively stable until around the age of 35 and, thereafter, morningness increases (12,16). Considering that the dynamics of the age-related transition from eveningness to morningness appears to be gender-sensitive, gender-driven changes in the expression of chronotype seem to not be significant after the age of 50.…”

Chronotype, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement: A meta-analytic investigation

“…Traditionally, morningness and eveningness have been conceptualized as a trait, lying along a continuum (known as the morningness-eveningness dimension). Most individuals (i.e., around 70%) have a scale position somewhere between the extremes of morningness and eveningness and can be described as a neither (or in some accounts, a combined) type (Achari & Pati, 2007;Cavallera & Giudici, 2008;Cofer et al, 1999;Gaina et al, 2006;Natale & Cicogna, 2002).…”

Morningness-Eveningness and Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescents

“…In order to separate evening, neither and morning types, extreme percentiles (10/90 or 20/80) are usually taken (Cofer et al, 1999;Díaz-Morales et al, 2007;Smith et al, 1989). In the present study, percentiles 20/80 were used.…”

“…Considering the interaction between a person's rhythms and those of the environment (i.e. dark-light cycle, schedules or social cues), morning and evening types show differences in behavioural habits (Nakade, Takeuchi, Kurotani, & Harada, 2009), personality (DeYoung, Hasher, Djikic, Criger, & Peterson, 2007;Díaz-Morales, 2007), patterns of social development (Cofer et al, 1999) and cognitive performance (Goldstein, Hahn, Hasher, Wiprzycka, & Zelazo, 2007). These differences between morning and evening types also appear in several health indicators.…”