Does chronotype explain daily timing of music behaviors?

ABSTRACT

We addressed how circadian rhythms influence daily musical activities of performing musicians, who exhibit fine temporal control. Music performances often occur in the evening and late at night; evidence suggests that composing musicians tend to be later chronotypes than non-composing musicians. However, chronotype and daily music-making in performing musicians have yet to be investigated. The current study examined chronotype in actively practicing and/or performing musicians and non-musicians, and whether it was related to the daily timing of music performance. To test influences of daily changes due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions to musical, athletic, social, and sleep habits were also measured. Performing musicians, active (practicing but non-performing) musicians, inactive musicians, and non-musicians, residing in Canada, completed a 7-day online daily activity and sleep diary in Summer 2020. There were more evening chronotypes than morning chronotypes in the sample. Active/performing musicians tended to be earlier chronotypes than all other groups. Musicians’ chronotype, but not nightly sleep timing, predicted the time of day that musicians made music: Late chronotypes made music later in the day and early chronotypes made music earlier in the day. Music performance and practice amount decreased during the COVID-19 period, but the daily timing of these activities did not change. All participants reported later sleep onset during the COVID-19 period; the amount of social interaction decreased during the COVID-19 period, while exercise increased for some and decreased for others. No changes in the daily timing of exercise, social interaction, or morning wake-up were reported. These findings suggest that performing musicians may be slightly earlier chronotypes than non-performing musicians and non-musicians, despite music performances often occurring in the evening. Chronotype was related to the time of day of music-making independent of nightly sleep timing, suggesting that times of day for making music reflect an individual’s circadian rhythm.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• time of day
• sleep
• music performance
• skilled motor performance
• COVID-19

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Yuki Landry and Sasha Sorger-Brock. Correspondence can be addressed to Shannon E. Wright and Caroline Palmer, Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave, Montreal QC Canada, H3A 1B1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by an NSERC-CREATE scholarship to Shannon E. Wright; by NSERC Grant [298173] to Caroline Palmer; and a Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance to Caroline Palmer.