Chronotypes in elite Japanese athletes: assessed by the reduced Morningness-Eveningness and Munich ChronoType Questionnaires

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to test in elite athletes the correlation between the chronotype determined by the reduced version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) and that determined by the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ). In total, 351 elite athletes filled out the rMEQ questionnaire, 59 athletes filled out the MCTQ questionnaire, and 39 athletes filled out both questionnaires. The rMEQ score and the corrected midpoint of sleep from the MCTQ correlated weakly (|r| = 0.360, p < .05); however, some cases were mismatched. The MSFsc also weakly correlated with age (|r| = 0.374, p < .05), while rMEQ did not. Our results may suggest that the choice of questionnaire to determine chronotype should depend on the purpose and the type of sport athlete.

KEYWORDS:

• Elite athletes
• chronotype
• reduced version of Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire
• Munich ChronoType Questionnaire
• distribution
• correlation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all athletes who participated in this study. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP26350827 and Japan Sport Council High Performance Center Total Conditioning Research Project.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under Grant [number JP26350827].