What Is the Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire?

The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) is a short self-test that places you somewhere between a true early bird and a true night owl. Created in the 1970s, it has 19 questions and gives a score from 16 to 86, which sorts you into one of five types, from definitely evening to definitely morning. It is the most widely used quiz of its kind, translated into many languages and used in sleep research for decades. Your score describes a preference you can feel, and that only partly lines up with the timing of the clock inside your body.

What the Questionnaire Asks and Where It Came From

The questionnaire has 19 items about your preferred sleep and wake times and the times you feel at your best.1Springer. STOP, THAT and One Hundred Other Sleep Scales It measures your chronotype, meaning how alert and active you tend to be at different times of day.2Springer. STOP, THAT and One Hundred Other Sleep Scales Horne and Östberg first published it in English, and they checked it against daily swings in body temperature in 48 people. Morning types’ temperature rhythms ran earlier than evening types’, which supported the idea that the answers reflect something physical.3PubMed. A self-assessment questionnaire to determine morningness-eveningness in human circadian rhythms

Answering it feels a bit like daydreaming. The questions ask you to imagine a free day with no obligations, not your real schedule. Typical items ask when you would choose to wake, when you would go to bed, or when you would want to take a hard exam. Answers are weighted, so stronger preferences earn more points. If you answer by your alarm-clock routine instead of your preference, the result skews. Skipping questions or answering in a rush can pull the total off, so if a result surprises you, check that you answered every item as you meant to. A night-shift worker can be a morning type forced to stay up. Your schedule shows what you do, while the MEQ asks what you would prefer, which makes it useful for spotting a mismatch between the two.

Other items ask how tired or alert you feel in the first half hour after waking. These capture how your body responds, which is harder to fake than a time.

The questions cluster into three themes: how you feel after waking, how you feel before bed, and when your mind is sharpest.4PubMed. What are we measuring with the morningness-eveningness questionnaire? Exploratory factor analysis across four samples from two countries So two people with the same total can reach it differently, one by waking easily, another by tiring early.

How to Read Your MEQ Score

The middle band is the widest, so many people land as intermediate. The labels are cut points on a continuous score, not separate kinds of people. A 41 and a 42 differ by one answer, yet they get different names, so a score near a band edge, say 58 or 59, describes nearly the same person on either side. Look at where you fall within a band, not just its name.

Shorter Versions and Other Chronotype Quizzes

A reduced five-question version gives total scores and types that closely match the full 19-item test.10Personality and Individual Differences. Horne & Östberg morningness-eveningness questionnaire: A reduced scale It also holds up for both sexes and across ages in teenagers.11PubMed. Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire: Reliability and factorial structure of the full and reduced versions in Spanish adolescents

The Munich Chronotype Questionnaire works differently. It asks when you actually sleep, especially the middle of your sleep on free days.12Chronobiology International. Comparison of the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire with the Horne-Östberg’s Morningness-Eveningness Score MEQ scores line up strongly with that midpoint.13Chronobiology International. Comparison of the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire with the Horne-Östberg’s Morningness-Eveningness Score In some groups the two are considered interchangeable.14PubMed. Comparison of Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ) and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) Czech version Still, when researchers compared two Brazilian cities, the Munich quiz picked up a shift toward lateness that the MEQ missed.15PubMed. Detecting chronotype differences associated to latitude: a comparison between Horne–Östberg and Munich Chronotype questionnaires

So which should you choose? The MEQ suits capturing your preference regardless of your current schedule, while the Munich quiz suits describing your real sleep timing on free days. Many online “what’s your chronotype” quizzes have no scoring key and are not the validated MEQ. A 16–86 score range is one sign a site may be using the full version, but check that it names the MEQ.

The MEQ exists in many languages, including Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese. Translated versions are tested to keep the meaning and reliability of the original. Take it in the language you think in most easily.

How Well the Score Matches Your Body Clock

Body temperature hits its daily low around 3:50 a.m. in morning types, 5:00 a.m. in intermediates and 6:00 a.m. in evening types.16PubMed. Individual differences in the phase and amplitude of the human circadian temperature rhythm: with an emphasis on morningness-eveningness So on average the quiz does sort people by when their body runs. These figures are group averages, though, so any one morning type may have a later low than the average evening type.

Sleep clinics measure body-clock timing by the evening rise in melatonin, the darkness hormone, which they track from saliva.17PubMed. Phase relationships between sleep-wake cycle and underlying circadian rhythms in Morningness-Eveningness In a very large study, MEQ scores were linked to melatonin timing.18PubMed Central. The dim light melatonin onset across ages, methodologies, and sex and its relationship with morningness/eveningness But individual variation was so wide that the MEQ shouldn’t replace the melatonin test.19PubMed Central. The dim light melatonin onset across ages, methodologies, and sex and its relationship with morningness/eveningness Other studies found a weak link or none at all.20PubMed Central. Concordance of Chronotype Categorisations Based on Dim Light Melatonin Onset, the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, and the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire21PubMed Central. Behavioural Parameters of Circadian Rhythm Are Not Correlated with Dim Light Melatonin Onset: An Observational Study on Healthy Volunteers Skin temperature showed no link to scores.22PubMed Central. Weak Associations of Morningness-Eveningness and Stability with Skin Temperature and Cortisol Levels

In practice, the quiz is good at telling a strong lark from a strong owl. It is weaker at estimating your exact internal time to the hour. Sleep doctors diagnosing a delayed sleep disorder may still order a melatonin test, and your own sleep on free days is a useful check alongside the score.

Why Some People Are Morning or Evening Types

Variants in a body-clock gene called PER3 are linked to small shifts toward morning or evening scores.23PubMed Central. Polymorphisms in the circadian expressed genes PER3 and ARNTL2 are associated with diurnal preference and GNβ3 with sleep measures24PubMed Central. Screening of Clock Gene Polymorphisms Demonstrates Association of a PER3 Polymorphism with Morningness–Eveningness Preference and Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder The effect is a couple of points, and not every study finds it.25PubMed Central. Screening of Clock Gene Polymorphisms Demonstrates Association of a PER3 Polymorphism with Morningness–Eveningness Preference and Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder26PubMed Central. Chronotype and a PERIOD3 variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in Han Chinese pilots Genes tilt you rather than fix your type. Chronotype often runs in families, which fits a genetic contribution, but families also share routines, homes and light exposure.

Consumer DNA reports may mention chronotype genes, but there is no genetic test for chronotype in any meaningful sense. The questionnaire tells you more than a single gene result.

Environment matters too. People living farther from the equator, with later sunsets, lean more evening.27PubMed Central. Latitude affects Morningness-Eveningness: evidence for the environment hypothesis based on a systematic review Warmer places lean more morning.28PubMed Central. Latitude affects Morningness-Eveningness: evidence for the environment hypothesis based on a systematic review Morning daylight pulls the clock earlier, while bright evening light and screens push it later.

How Your Type Changes With Age and Sex

Children shift toward evening from toddlerhood, with the biggest change around ages 9 to 10.29PubMed Central. From Lark to Owl: developmental changes in morningness-eveningness from new-borns to early adulthood Lateness peaks around 15 in girls and 18 in boys.30PubMed Central. From Lark to Owl: developmental changes in morningness-eveningness from new-borns to early adulthood After that, through adulthood, older age goes with higher morning scores in a steady line.31PubMed. Ontogeny of morningness-eveningness across the adult human lifespan Melatonin timing also gets earlier with age after the late teens.32PubMed Central. The dim light melatonin onset across ages, methodologies, and sex and its relationship with morningness/eveningness

During puberty the body clock tends to run later, so teens often feel alert in the evening and sleepy at the hour school expects them up. Early school start times collide with that biology, which can leave teenagers short of sleep on school days. Many then sleep in on weekends, and the weekday-weekend gap can look like laziness when it reflects a shifted clock.

Men lean more evening than women on average.33PubMed. Gender differences in morningness-eveningness preference That gap shrinks with age and may reverse in later life.34PubMed. Gender differences in chronotype diminish with age: a meta-analysis based on morningness/chronotype questionnaires

Evening Types and Health

Evening types report more depression symptoms.35PubMed Central. Morningness-eveningness and depression: Preliminary evidence for the role of BAS and positive affect Across 58 results the link is small.36PubMed. The relationship between chronotype and depressive symptoms: A meta-analysis And in 18,039 adults, missing sleep explained most of evening types’ higher rates of depression and anxiety.37PubMed. Eveningness increases risks for depressive and anxiety symptoms and hospital treatments mediated by insufficient sleep in a population-based study of 18,039 adults

Evening types also have higher blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides on average.38PubMed Central. Chronotype Differences in Energy Intake, Cardiometabolic Risk Parameters, Cancer, and Depression: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies They have about 30% higher odds of diabetes and modestly higher odds of cancer.39PubMed Central. Chronotype Differences in Energy Intake, Cardiometabolic Risk Parameters, Cancer, and Depression: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies They use more energy drinks, alcohol and cigarettes, especially after age 30.40PubMed. Relationship between chronotype and consumption of stimulants

These figures compare groups, and most evening types are healthy. Much of the risk runs through short sleep and habits you can change. Evening types often have to wake early for work or school, so they can carry a steady sleep debt even when they go to bed late.

If you are an owl, protect your total sleep time even if it starts late. Get daylight soon after waking to ease mornings. Cut back on energy drinks and late caffeine. And mention persistent low mood or sleep trouble to a doctor.

Using Your Result for Work, Study and Exercise

People think best at their preferred time of day.41PubMed Central. Time of day and chronotype in the assessment of cognitive functions Morning types handle off-peak times somewhat better than evening types.42PubMed. The synchrony effect revisited: chronotype, time of day and cognitive performance in a semantic analogy task The difference is largest for tasks needing sustained focus, such as studying new material or solving unfamiliar problems. Easy or well-practiced tasks are less affected.

So put focused work or study into your best hours, and save routine tasks for low-energy periods. Book exams or interviews at your good time when you can choose.

Exercise follows a similar pattern. Morning-type rowers were slower in evening sessions than in morning ones.43Electronic Journal of General Medicine. Chronotype and athletes’ performance in sports: A narrative review Train hard when you feel strongest and accept slower sessions off-peak. Shift work shows it too: morning types produce more stress hormone on night shifts,44PubMed. Cortisol, chronotype, and coping styles as determinants of tolerance of nursing staff to rotating shift work