Human chronotype: Comparison of questionnaires and wrist-worn actigraphy

ABSTRACT

In this work, we investigated the accuracy of chronotype estimation from actigraphy while evaluating the required recording length and stability over time. Chronotypes have an important role in chronobiological and sleep research. In outpatient studies, chronotypes are typically evaluated by questionnaires. Alternatively, actigraphy provides potential means for measuring chronotype characteristics objectively, which opens many applications in chronobiology research. However, studies providing objective, critical evaluation of agreement between questionnaire-based and actigraphy-based chronotypes are lacking. We recorded 3-months of actigraphy and collected Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), and Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ) results from 122 women. Regression models were applied to evaluate the questionnaire-based chronotypes scores using selected actigraphy features. Changes in predictive strength were evaluated based on actigraphy recordings of different duration. The actigraphy was significantly associated with the questionnaire-based chronotype, and the best single-feature-based models explained 37% of the variability (R²) for MEQ (p < .001), 47% for mid-sleep time MCTQ-MSFsc (p < .001), and 19% for social jetlag MCTQ-SJLrel (p < .001). Concerning stability in time, the Mid-sleep and Acrophase features showed high levels of stability (test-retest R ~ 0.8), and actigraphy-based MSFsc_acti and SJLrel_acti showed high temporal variability (test-retest R ~ 0.45). Concerning required recording length, features estimated from recordings with 3-week and longer observation periods had sufficient predictive power on unseen data. Additionally, our data showed that the subjectively reported extremes of the MEQ, MCTQ-MSFsc, and MCTQ-SJLrel are commonly overestimated compared to objective activity peak and middle of sleep differences measured by actigraphy. Such difference may be associated with chronotype time-variation. As actigraphy is considered accurate in sleep-wake cycle detection, we conclude that actigraphy-based chronotyping is appropriate for large-scale studies, especially where higher temporal variability in chronotype is expected.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• actigraphy
• social jetlag
• objective estimation
• sleep
• circadian rhythms
• physical activity patterns

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Dr. Filip Španiel for critical reading of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors, Ing. Jakub Schneider, Ing. Eduard Bakštein, Ph.D. are associated, as consultants, advisors and/or data analysts, with Mindpax Ltd., the company that focuses on management of bipolar and schizophrenia disorder and mental health data analyses. The author RNDr. Ing. Eva Fárková Ph.D. has no conflict of interest.

Authorship contributions

All authors met the ICMJE criteria for authorship. Especially, J.S., and E.F contributed to the design of the study. J.S., and E.B. contributed to the statistical analysis and checking the integrity of the data. E.F., and J.S. contributed to data collection. J.S., E.F., and E.B., contributed to the interpretation of the results. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript and approved the final version.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work of J.S. has been supported by the student grant agency of the Czech Technical University in Prague (grant number SGS19/171/OHK3/3 T/13). The work of E.B., E.F., and J.S. has been supported by the Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy (project number LO1611—NPU I program). The sponsors of the study had no role in the design or conduct of this study; in the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.