Intentional Stress Challenge: Determine Your Sleep Chronotype

Progressive challenge series to gain insight into optimal timing of your sleep. Knowledge of your sleep chronotype provides the foundation for improving the overall quality of your sleep.

Sleep Timing

Sleep is the most restorative function we possess. Without it, we would eventually die.

Show me someone who isn’t sleeping well and I’ll show you someone who isn’t doing well. 

Optimal functioning requires adequate sleep. 

Thanks to the rise in wellness research and public interest in well-being, scientists like Matthew Walker and Andrew Huberman have illuminated how imperative proper sleep is. 

Every aspect of mental and physical health is regulated by sleep. 

Adequate sleep promotes optimized health while poor sleep compromises function in all ways. The evidence is so profound that a question to ask anyone who may need support is, “how are you sleeping?” rather than “how are you doing?”

Sleep NEEDS to be a priority for anyone hoping to improve well-being. 

Unfortunately, you can’t always control your sleep. Illness, injury, children, occupation, emergencies, and other circumstances all have the ability to negatively impact our sleep. 

We can, however, know what is uniquely needed to get a good night of sleep when able. 

The eyes are an extension of the brain and our exposure to light, particularly the sun, influences our circadian rhythms. Within our natural 24-hour cycles, developed around the sunrise and sunset, we all have specific time periods that our sleep is optimal. These internal clocks are a representation of our sleep chronotype.

Sleep chronotypes represent genetic predispositions we all have relating to the timing of our sleep. Whether we are a morning, night, or intermediate person has more to do with heredity than willpower. It’s important to note that sleep chronotype is separate from subjective preference. You can’t decide that you want to be an early bird when your chronotype is night owl. 

Sleep chronotype can be influenced when life requires less than optimal sleep due to uncontrollable circumstance, but it cannot be permanently changed. Many, however, don’t align their actions, specifically the timing of sleep, with ideal windows that promote maximum recovery due to established habits and routines.

The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) is a self-assessment that helps to determine your sleep chronotype. This three-minute evaluation will encourage reflection on variables relating to sleep timing and give you a score that indicates which sleep chronotype best represents your answers.

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