Chronotype Alignment and Time Perception

People differ in chronotype - whether they function best in the morning ("larks") or the evening ("owls"). This study asks whether the match or mismatch between a person's chronotype and the time of day at which they are tested changes how they perceive time.

Healthy morning-type and evening-type adults at three sites (Aarhus, Denmark; Changzhou, China; and Hong Kong) complete the same battery of perception and cognition tasks twice - once in the early morning (about 08:00) and once late in the evening (about 22:00), in counterbalanced order. The primary outcome is the accuracy (signed bias) of time-perception judgements; the key comparison is the interaction between chronotype and time of day (the "synchrony effect").

Secondary measures include timing precision, the subjective passage of time, sleepiness, mood, colour perception (with and without blue-blocking glasses) and perceptual decision-making. By testing the same protocol across three cultures and latitudes, the study examines whether circadian match/mismatch effects on temporal cognition generalise across populations.