Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ)
Assess morningness and eveningness. Questions are framed in a preferential manner, where the respondent is asked to indicate when, for example, he/she would prefer to wake up or start sleep, rather than when he/she actually does.
Questions
About
Original study in student population (18-32 years). Validated with oral temperature curves. Morning types had a significantly earlier peak time in the circadian peak than Evening types and tended to have a higher daytime temperature and lower post peak temperature.
- 16-30 - "definite evening"
- 31-41 - "moderate evening"
- 42-58 - "intermediate"
- 59-69 - "moderate morning"
- 70-86 - "definite morning"
When re-examined, original criteria of Horne and Ostberg (1976) studies showed different validity in different populations. In a validation study in a sample of middle-aged workers- (non-students): evening types were considered as scoring under 53 and morning types above 64, thus giving 28.1% morning type, 51.7% neither type and 20.2% evening type.
In 14 studies that used the MEQ in individuals without a diagnosis of circadian rhythm disorder and used objective circadian phase marker testing (e.g., core body temperature, DLMO), all studies found that subjects with a later circadian phase generally scored lower on the MEQ. Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranged widely from -0.353 to -0.760 in studies, possibly due to differences in study populations and study conditions.
References
Horne JA, Östberg O. (1976).
Taillard J, et al. (2004).
Paine SJ, Gander PH, Travier N.(2006)
Sack R, et al. (2007)
Cavallera GM, Boari G. (2015)
Zacharia T, et al. (2014)
Lee JH, et al. (2014)
Diaz-Morales JF , et al. (2007)
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