Chronotype Test
A test based on the MCTQ (Munich ChronoType Questionnaire): instead of a vague "owl or lark", a concrete marker computed from your sleep times on workdays and free days. Free days without an alarm show when you'd wake up on your own; the gap with your weekday schedule is your social jetlag. No fixed categories here — just your marker, jetlag, and sleep duration.
Chronotype can't be computed without free days: the marker is built from when you wake up on your own, without an alarm. If you genuinely have no free days in a week, try entering 6 workdays and estimating when you'd wake up without an alarm.
Your result
Chronotype marker (MSFsc)
Mid-sleep, workdays Mid-sleep, free days Your chronotype (sleep-debt corrected)
The later this marker, the later ("owlier") your chronotype. Most people fall somewhere between extreme early and extreme late — true extremes are rare (Wittmann et al., 2006).
Social jetlag is the gap between your social and biological time — like flying across time zones, except every week. Late chronotypes tend to carry the largest gap (Wittmann et al., 2006).
Chronotype depends on age and sex (Roenneberg et al., 2007), as well as genetics and environment, including light exposure (Roenneberg et al., 2012); more time outdoors in daylight is linked to earlier sleep timing (Roenneberg et al., 2003).
Your sleep on free days is longer than on workdays — usually a sign of sleep debt accumulated over the week and made up for by sleeping in, rather than a different chronotype (Roenneberg et al., 2003).
How it works
- The method is the MCTQ (Munich ChronoType Questionnaire), a standard tool from circadian-rhythm research; this is its short form, µMCTQ, with 6 core questions (Ghotbi et al., 2020).
- Free days are days without an alarm, when you wake up on your own: they show your real sleep timing, not your social schedule.
- The result is the MSFsc marker (mid-sleep on free days, corrected for weekday sleep debt) and social jetlag — the gap between your weekday and free-day sleep rhythm.
- This test doesn't sort you into fixed "owl" or "lark" categories: most people fall somewhere between the extremes (Wittmann et al., 2006), so it shows only your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Am I an owl or a lark?
This test doesn't sort you into fixed types: the later your marker (MSFsc), the later your chronotype, and most people fall somewhere between extreme early and extreme late — true extremes are rare (Wittmann et al., 2006).
Why free days without an alarm?
An alarm sets your social wake-up time, not your biological one. Without one, you wake up once you're actually rested — that is the marker of your internal chronotype.
What is social jetlag?
The gap between your social and biological time — like flying across time zones, except every week. Late chronotypes tend to carry the largest gap (Wittmann et al., 2006); it's also associated with a higher BMI, though that's an association, not proven causation (Roenneberg et al., 2012).
Can chronotype change?
Chronotype depends on age and sex (Roenneberg et al., 2007), as well as genetics and environment, including light exposure (Roenneberg et al., 2012); more time outdoors in daylight is linked to earlier sleep timing (Roenneberg et al., 2003).
References
- Roenneberg et al. (2003): Life Between Clocks — Daily Temporal Patterns of Human Chronotypes
- Wittmann et al. (2006): Social Jetlag — Misalignment of Biological and Social Time
- Roenneberg et al. (2007): Epidemiology of the Human Circadian Clock
- Roenneberg et al. (2012): Social Jetlag and Obesity
- Ghotbi et al. (2020): The µMCTQ — an Ultra-Short Version of the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire
Chronotype and bedtime: the full guide → Try the Fixed Sleep Schedule protocol →