The morningness–eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) is a self-assessment
questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of ...
developed by researchers James A. Horne and Olov Östberg in 1976. Its main purpose is to measure whether a person's
circadian rhythm
A circadian rhythm (), or circadian cycle, is a natural oscillation that repeats roughly every 24 hours. Circadian rhythms can refer to any process that originates within an organism (i.e., Endogeny (biology), endogenous) and responds to the env ...
(biological clock) produces peak alertness in the morning, in the evening, or in between. The original study showed that the subjective time of peak alertness correlates with the time of
peak body temperature; morning types (
early birds) have an earlier temperature peak than evening types (
night owls), with intermediate types having temperature peaks between the morning and evening
chronotype
A chronotype is the behavioral manifestation of an underlying circadian rhythm's myriad of physical processes. A person's chronotype is the propensity for the individual to sleep at a particular time during a 24-hour period. ''Eveningness'' (del ...
groups.
The MEQ is widely used in psychological and medical research and has been professionally cited more than 4,000 times.
MEQ questions
The standard MEQ consists of 19 multiple-choice questions, each having four or five response options. Some example questions are:
Responses to the questions are combined to form a composite score that indicates the degree to which the respondent favors morning versus evening. Subsequent researchers have created shorter versions with four, five, or six questions.
Related research
According to a 1997 study of identical and fraternal
twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...
s, 54% of variance in morningness–eveningness was due to genetic variability, 3% was due to age, and the rest was explained by non-shared environmental influences and errors in measurement.
A study in 2000 showed that both "morningness" and "eveningness" participants performed poorly in the morning on the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) tests. It thus did not support the hypothesis that there is a reliable relationship between morningness–eveningness, time of day, and
cognitive ability
Cognitive skills are skills of the mind, as opposed to other types of skills such as motor skills, social skills or life skills. Some examples of cognitive skills are literacy, self-reflection, logical reasoning, abstract thinking, critical th ...
.
A study in 2008 examined the relationship between morningness and
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...
in adults aged 40–63. It found a negative correlation in women, but not in men, suggesting that gender-related variables may be attributed to morningness and eveningness when looking at mood.
A study in 2009 examined differences between evening and morning types in the timing of
melatonin
Melatonin, an indoleamine, is a natural compound produced by various organisms, including bacteria and eukaryotes. Its discovery in 1958 by Aaron B. Lerner and colleagues stemmed from the isolation of a substance from the pineal gland of cow ...
and core body temperature rhythms as well as objective and subjective sleepiness rhythms in a
controlled laboratory protocol. The evening types had significantly later timed rhythms for all these variables, particularly that of maximum alertness, which occurred, on average, in the middle of the day for morning types but only four hours before bedtime for evening types.
See also
*
Circadian rhythm sleep disorder
Circadian rhythm sleep disorders (CRSD), also known as circadian rhythm sleep–wake disorders (CRSWD), are a family of sleep disorders that affect the timing of sleep. CRSDs cause a persistent pattern of sleep/wake disturbances that arise eit ...
*
MCTQ
References
External links
Automated Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire(AutoMEQ--results behind paywall)
Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morningness-eveningness questionnaire
Neuropsychological tests
Circadian rhythm
1976 introductions