For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
12
views
87
references
 Top references
cited by
179
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      946
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Chronotype and Social Jetlag: A (Self-) Critical Review

      review-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          The Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ) has now been available for more than 15 years and its original publication has been cited 1240 times (Google Scholar, May 2019). Additionally, its online version, which was available until July 2017, produced almost 300,000 entries from all over the world (MCTQ database). The MCTQ has gone through several versions, has been translated into 13 languages, and has been validated against other more objective measures of daily timing in several independent studies. Besides being used as a method to correlate circadian features of human biology with other factors—ranging from health issues to geographical factors—the MCTQ gave rise to the quantification of old wisdoms, like “teenagers are late”, and has produced new concepts, like social jetlag. Some like the MCTQ’s simplicity and some view it critically. Therefore, it is time to present a self-critical view on the MCTQ, to address some misunderstandings, and give some definitions of the MCTQ-derived chronotype and the concept of social jetlag.

          Related collections

          Most cited references87

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Social jetlag: misalignment of biological and social time.

          Marc Wittmann, Jenny Dinich, Martha Merrow … (2006)
          Humans show large differences in the preferred timing of their sleep and activity. This so-called "chronotype" is largely regulated by the circadian clock. Both genetic variations in clock genes and environmental influences contribute to the distribution of chronotypes in a given population, ranging from extreme early types to extreme late types with the majority falling between these extremes. Social (e.g., school and work) schedules interfere considerably with individual sleep preferences in the majority of the population. Late chronotypes show the largest differences in sleep timing between work and free days leading to a considerable sleep debt on work days, for which they compensate on free days. The discrepancy between work and free days, between social and biological time, can be described as 'social jetlag.' Here, we explore how sleep quality and psychological wellbeing are associated with individual chronotype and/or social jetlag. A total of 501 volunteers filled out the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ) as well as additional questionnaires on: (i) sleep quality (SF-A), (ii) current psychological wellbeing (Basler Befindlichkeitsbogen), (iii) retrospective psychological wellbeing over the past week (POMS), and (iv) consumption of stimulants (e.g., caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol). Associations of chronotype, wellbeing, and stimulant consumption are strongest in teenagers and young adults up to age 25 yrs. The most striking correlation exists between chronotype and smoking, which is significantly higher in late chronotypes of all ages (except for those in retirement). We show these correlations are most probably a consequence of social jetlag, i.e., the discrepancies between social and biological timing rather than a simple association to different chronotypes. Our results strongly suggest that work (and school) schedules should be adapted to chronotype whenever possible.
          Article 0 comments Cited 456 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Social jetlag and obesity.

            Till Roenneberg, Karla V. Allebrandt, Martha Merrow … (2012)
            Obesity has reached crisis proportions in industrialized societies. Many factors converge to yield increased body mass index (BMI). Among these is sleep duration. The circadian clock controls sleep timing through the process of entrainment. Chronotype describes individual differences in sleep timing, and it is determined by genetic background, age, sex, and environment (e.g., light exposure). Social jetlag quantifies the discrepancy that often arises between circadian and social clocks, which results in chronic sleep loss. The circadian clock also regulates energy homeostasis, and its disruption-as with social jetlag-may contribute to weight-related pathologies. Here, we report the results from a large-scale epidemiological study, showing that, beyond sleep duration, social jetlag is associated with increased BMI. Our results demonstrate that living "against the clock" may be a factor contributing to the epidemic of obesity. This is of key importance in pending discussions on the implementation of Daylight Saving Time and on work or school times, which all contribute to the amount of social jetlag accrued by an individual. Our data suggest that improving the correspondence between biological and social clocks will contribute to the management of obesity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
            Article 0 comments Cited 260 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              A Smartphone App Reveals Erratic Diurnal Eating Patterns in Humans that Can Be Modulated for Health Benefits.

              Shubhroz Gill, Satchidananda Panda (2015)
              A diurnal rhythm of eating-fasting promotes health, but the eating pattern of humans is rarely assessed. Using a mobile app, we monitored ingestion events in healthy adults with no shift-work for several days. Most subjects ate frequently and erratically throughout wakeful hours, and overnight fasting duration paralleled time in bed. There was a bias toward eating late, with an estimated 35% after 6 p.m. "Metabolic jetlag" resulting from weekday/weekend variation in eating pattern akin to travel across time zones was prevalent. The daily intake duration (95% interval) exceeded 14.75 hr for half of the cohort. When overweight individuals with >14 hr eating duration ate for only 10-11 hr daily for 16 weeks assisted by a data visualization (raster plot of dietary intake pattern, "feedogram") that we developed, they reduced body weight, reported being energetic, and improved sleep. Benefits persisted for a year.
              Article 0 comments Cited 253 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Biology (Basel)
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Biology (Basel)
                Journal ID (publisher-id): biology
                Title: Biology
                Publisher: MDPI
                ISSN (Electronic): 2079-7737
                Publication date (Electronic): 12 July 2019
                Publication date Collection: September 2019
                Volume: 8
                Issue: 3
                Electronic Location Identifier: 54
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of Medical Psychology, LMU Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany
                [2 ]Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psiquiatria e Ciências do Comportamento, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre 90035-003, Brazil
                [3 ]Laboratório de Cronobiologia e Sono, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre 90035-903, Brazil
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: roenneberg@ 123456lmu.de ; Tel.: +49-89-2180-75-650
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2939-0332
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5348-9212
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0717-9432
                Article
                Publisher ID: biology-08-00054
                DOI: 10.3390/biology8030054
                PMC ID: 6784249
                PubMed ID: 31336976
                SO-VID: 44ef0586-de4d-4d4c-a4e0-71625a28c6ee
                Copyright © © 2019 by the authors.
                License:

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                Date received : 07 May 2019
                Date accepted : 08 July 2019
                Categories
                Subject: Review

                Keywords: sleep-wake timing,circadian clock,entrainment,light,period,phase
                Data availability:
                Keywords: sleep-wake timing, circadian clock, entrainment, light, period, phase

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content946

                See all similar

                Cited by177

                See all cited by