Abstract
A late chronotype (or an owl) is someone who tends to go to bed late, so he or she will get up later. In contrast, morning types (larks) get up earlier and go to bed earlier. Men and women differ in their chronotype. Women are usually earlier chronotypes, who go to bed earlier and fall asleep earlier, and then get up a little earlier. Interestingly, this difference arises with puberty and ends with menopause, from which a reproductive function is suggested. From an evolutionary Darwinian perspective, this is a sexual dimorphism that can be explained by sexual selection. Various studies have indeed shown that men of the evening type reported more sexual partners, in Italy, Sri Lanka and Germany. Furthermore, studies show that assortative mating takes place when choosing a partner, i.e. couples have more similar chronotypes. However, there are still many open questions related to this topic. Other evidence from this brief overview showed that morning people are more extraverted and agreeable. One of the unresolved questions is are these relationships and associations a result of shorter sleep and restricted sleep or is this a basic biological link. If the former is the case, extending sleep duration for owls, especially during the week, would increase quality of life and may have a positive impact on social behavior.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adan, A., & Almirall, H. (1991). Horne & Östberg morningness-eveningness questionnaire: A reduced scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 241–253.
Adan, A., Archer, S. N., Hidalgo, M. P., Di Milia, L., Natale, V., & Randler, C. (2012). Circadian typology: A comprehensive review. Chronobiology International, 29, 1153–1175.
Aledavood, T., Lehmann, S., & Saramäki, J. (2018). Social network differences of chronotypes identified from mobile phone data. EPJ Data Science, 7(1), 46.
Di Milia, L., Adan, A., Natale, V., & Randler, C. (2013). Reviewing the psychometric properties of contemporary circadian typology measures. Chronobiology International, 30, 1261–1271.
Díaz-Morales, J. F., Jankowski, K. S., Prokop, P., Castellana, I., Linke, M., Randler, C., & Rahafar, A. (2018). Sleep timing is linked to sociosexuality: Evidence from German, Polish, Slovak, and Spanish females. Time & Society, 0961463X18757390.
Gunawardane, K. G., Custance, D. M., & Piffer, D. (2011). Evidence of sexual selection for evening orientation in human males: A cross cultural study in Italy and Sri Lanka. Interdisciplinary Bio Central, 3(4), 13–11.
Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., Hasler, B. P., Begley, A., & Troxel, W. M. (2015). Sleep concordance in couples is associated with relationship characteristics. Sleep, 38(6), 933–939.
Hida, A., Kitamura, S., Enomoto, M., Nozaki, K., Moriguchi, Y., Echizenya, M., … Mishima, K. (2012). Individual traits and environmental factors influencing sleep timing: A study of 225 Japanese couples. Chronobiology International, 29(2), 220–226.
Jankowski, K. S., Díaz-Morales, J. F., & Randler, C. (2014). Chronotype, gender, and time for sex. Chronobiology International, 31(8), 911–916.
Jocz, P., Stolarski, M., & Jankowski, K. S. (2018). Similarity in chronotype and preferred time for sex and its role in relationship quality and sexual satisfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 443.
Jonason, P. K., Jones, A., & Lyons, M. (2013). Creatures of the night: Chronotypes and the Dark Triad traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(5), 538–541.
Jonason, P. K., Li, N. P., Webster, G. D., & Schmitt, D. P. (2009). The dark triad: Facilitating a short-term mating strategy in men. European Journal of Personality, 23(1), 5–18.
Kantermann, T., Sung, H., & Burgess, H. J. (2015). Comparing the morningness-eveningness questionnaire and Munich chronotype questionnaire to the dim light melatonin onset. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 30(5), 449–453.
Kasaeian, A., Weidenauer, C., Hautzinger, M., & Randler, C. (2019). Reproductive success, relationship orientation, and sexual behavior in heterosexuals: Relationship with chronotype, sleep, and sex. Evolutionary Psychology, 17(3), 1474704919859760.
Kırcaburun, K., & Tosuntaş, Ş. B. (2018). Cyberbullying perpetration among undergraduates: Evidence of the roles of chronotype and sleep quality. Biological Rhythm Research, 49(2), 247–265.
Lane, J. M., Vlasac, I., Anderson, S. G., Kyle, S. D., Dixon, W. G., Bechtold, D. A., … Emsley, R. (2016). Genome-wide association analysis identifies novel loci for chronotype in 100,420 individuals from the UK Biobank. Nature Communications, 7, 10889.
Lange, L., & Randler, C. (2011). Morningness-eveningness and behavioural problems in adolescents. Sleep & Biological Rhythms, 9, 12–18.
Lipnevich, A. A., Credè, M., Hahn, E., Spinath, F. M., Roberts, R. D., & Preckel, F. (2017). How distinctive are morningness and eveningness from the big five factors of personality? A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), 491.
Maestripieri, D. (2014). Night owl women are similar to men in their relationship orientation, risk-taking propensities, and cortisol levels: Implications for the adaptive significance and evolution of eveningness. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(1), 147470491401200111.
Muro, A., Gomà-i-Freixanet, M., & Adan, A. (2009). Morningness-eveningness, sex, and the alternative five factor model of personality. Chronobiology International, 26, 1235–1248.
Owens, J. A., Dearth-Wesley, T., Lewin, D., Gioia, G., & Whitaker, R. C. (2016). Self-regulation and sleep duration, sleepiness, and chronotype in adolescents. Pediatrics, 138(6), e20161406.
Penke, L., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2008). Beyond global sociosexual orientations: A more differentiated look at sociosexuality and its effects on courtship and romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1113–1135.
Piffer, D. (2010). Sleep patterns and sexual selection: An evolutionary approach. Mankind Quarterly, 50(4), 361.
Rahafar, A., Randler, C., Castellana, I., & Kausch, I. (2017). How does chronotype mediate gender effect on Dark Triad? Personality and Individual Differences, 108, 35–39.
Randler, C. (2007). Gender differences in morningness–eveningness assessed by self-report questionnaires: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(7), 1667–1675.
Randler, C. (2008). Evening types among German University students score higher on sense of humor after controlling for big five personality factors. Psychological Reports, 103, 361–370.
Randler, C. (2014). Sleep, sleep timing and chronotype in animal behaviour. Animal Behaviour, 94, 161–166.
Randler, C. (2016). Ontogeny of morningness-eveningness across the adult human lifespan. Science of Nature, 103(3), 1–4.
Randler, C., Barrenstein, S., Vollmer, C., Díaz-Morales, J. F., & Jankowski, K. S. (2014). Women would like their partners to be more synchronized with them in their sleep-wake rhythm. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 17, E70.
Randler, C., Ebenhöh, N., Fischer, A., Höchel, S., Schroff, C., Stoll, J. C., … Piffer, D. (2012). Eveningness is related to men’s mating success. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(3), 263–267.
Randler, C., Faßl, C., & Kalb, N. (2017). From Lark to Owl: Developmental changes in morningness-eveningness from new-borns to early adulthood. Scientific Reports, 7, 45874.
Randler, C., Freyth-Weber, K., Rahafar, A., Jurado, A. F., & Kriegs, J. O. (2016). Morningness-eveningness in a large sample of German adolescents and adults. Heliyon, 2(11), e00200.
Randler, C., Gomà-i-Freixanet, M., Muro, A., Knauber, C., & Adan, A. (2015). Do different circadian typology measures modulate their relationship with personality? A test using the Alternative Five Factor Model. Chronobiology International, xx, xxx–xxx.
Randler, C., Jankowski, K. S., Rahafar, A., & Díaz-Morales, J. F. (2016). Sociosexuality, morningness–eveningness, and sleep duration. SAGE Open, 6(1), 2158244015621958.
Randler, C., & Kretz, S. (2011). Assortative mating in morningness–eveningness. International Journal of Psychology, 46(2), 91–96.
Randler, C., & Schaal, S. (2010). Morningness-eveningness, habitual sleep-wake variables and cortisol levels. Biological Psychology, 85, 14–18.
Randler, C., Schredl, M., & Göritz, A. S. (2017). Chronotype, sleep behavior, and the big five personality factors. SAGE Open, 7(3), 2158244017728321.
Richter, K., Adam, S., Geiss, L., Peter, L., & Niklewski, G. (2016). Two in a bed: The influence of couple sleeping and chronotypes on relationship and sleep. An overview. Chronobiology International, 33(10), 1464–1472.
Roenneberg, T., Kuehnle, T., Pramstaller, P. P., Ricken, J., Havel, M., Guth, A., & Merrow, M. (2004). A marker for the end of adolescence. Current Biology, 14(24), R1038–R1039.
Ruffing, S., Hahn, E., Spinath, F. M., Brünken, R., & Karbach, J. (2015). Predicting students’ learning strategies: The contribution of chronotype over personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 85, 199–204.
Schlarb, A. A., Sopp, R., Ambiel, D., & Grünwald, J. (2014). Chronotype-related differences in childhood and adolescent aggression and antisocial behavior–a review of the literature. Chronobiology International, 31(1), 1–16.
Tsaousis, I. (2010). Circadian preferences and personality traits: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Personality, 24, 356–373.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Randler, C. (2019). Chronotype and Social Behavior. In: Križan, Z. (eds) Sleep, Personality, and Social Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30628-1_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30628-1_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-30627-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-30628-1
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)