Chronotype Quiz

Your chronotype is your body clock's natural preference for mornings or evenings. This 5-question quiz uses the reduced Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire, a short version of the questionnaire sleep researchers use, to place you on the scale from morning lark to night owl and suggest when you are likely to sleep best.

Find your chronotype

Answer based on how you've felt in recent weeks, not on your current schedule.

1. If you were entirely free to plan your day, what time would you get up?
2. How do you usually feel during the first half hour after waking up?
3. At what time in the evening do you feel tired and in need of sleep?
4. At what time of day do you usually feel at your best?
5. People talk about "morning" and "evening" types. Which do you consider yourself?

0 of 5 answered.

The five chronotypes

The questionnaire scores from 4 to 25 and sorts people into five groups, and most people land in the intermediate group. The sleep windows are SleepUtility's rough guide based on each group's typical answers about getting up and getting tired; they are not part of the questionnaire itself.

ScoreChronotypeNatural sleep window
22–25Definite morning type (lark)about 9:00–10:00 PM to 5:00–6:30 AM
18–21Moderate morning typeabout 10:00–11:00 PM to 6:00–7:00 AM
12–17Intermediate typeabout 11:00 PM to 7:00–7:30 AM
8–11Moderate evening typeabout midnight to 8:00 AM
4–7Definite evening type (night owl)about 1:00 AM to 9:00 AM

Living with your chronotype

Evening types who have to start early tend to build up sleep debt during the week and sleep in on weekends, which researchers call social jet lag. Keeping the same wake-up time every day and getting bright light in the morning are the most effective ways to move your body clock earlier. The sleep schedule calculator plans that shift day by day, and the sleep calculator finds bedtimes that fit your wake-up time.

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Sleep Schedule Calculator

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Caffeine Calculator

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Frequently asked questions

What is a chronotype?

Your chronotype is your natural tendency to sleep and be active earlier or later in the day. It comes from your body clock and is partly genetic, and it shifts later in the teenage years and earlier again with age.

How accurate is this chronotype quiz?

It uses the five questions of the reduced Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire published by Adan and Almirall in 1991, a short version of the questionnaire sleep researchers use widely. It gives a good self-assessment rather than a clinical measurement.

Can you change your chronotype?

Only partly. Light exposure, a fixed wake-up time and gradual schedule changes can move your sleep times earlier or later, but the underlying tendency is largely set by genetics and age.

What are the lion, bear, wolf and dolphin chronotypes?

Those four animal types come from a popular book by sleep doctor Michael Breus rather than from a validated research questionnaire. Roughly, lions are morning types, bears are intermediate, and wolves are evening types; dolphins describe light, easily disturbed sleepers.