Morningness–eveningness preference, sleep quality and behavioral sleep patterns in humans – a mini review

ABSTRACT

The sleep requirement of humans varies as a function of the country they live in, and their chronotype, gender, ethnicity, physiological state, and lifestyle. An interaction between the circadian clock (process C) and the sleep-wake homeostasis (process S) regulates sleep in humans. The Suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) – the master clock, measures the length of the solar day and through appropriate neuroendocrine mechanisms promotes sleep in the night. In this mini-review, we made an attempt to summarize findings of earlier studies dealing with the distribution pattern of chronotypes, sleep quality, and behavioral sleep patterns in human populations. The review is based on 203 relevant papers that we picked up from the databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The review reveals the paucity of information on sleep behavior in humans in densely populated countries, like China and India. In addition, a clear message emerged from the review of the literature, i.e. the studies on the distribution of chronotypes and their problems associated with sleep quality, the behavioral sleep pattern, and diseases are critically limited and are far from complete. We recommend that this is the area that needs to be investigated extensively and intensively.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• morningness-eveningness
• sleep quality
• behavioral sleep pattern
• humans

Acknowledgments

The authors are obliged to the Head of the Department, School of Zoology, Gangadhar Meher University, Amruta Vihar, Sambalpur – 768 004, Odisha, India for extending all facilities during the preparation of this manuscript. One of us (SM) is a recipient of the National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST students (NFST) awarded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi (Ref. No. 201819-NFST-ODI-01798; 27 March 2019).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Contributions of the authors

Sarojini Minz conducted the review of literature and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. Atanu Kumar Pati edited the review and prepared the final draft of the manuscript.