Find your chronotype.
Eight questions about when you wake, focus and fade place you between night owl and early bird, with a score from 8 to 32. Your type comes with a day plan on a 24-hour clock: daylight, focus, exercise, the caffeine cut-off, wind-down and sleep, all timed for you.
Eight questions, one body clock.
Last result:
Waking
On a day with nothing planned and no alarm, when would you wake up by yourself?
Think of a free morning after a normal night, not after a late one.
Your day, by the clock
How it works.
- Answer eight questions, one per screen; use Back to change an answer.
- Read your type and score out of 32, then the day plan on the 24-hour clock.
- Save the card, then hold the wake time and the daylight window for 2 weeks.
Where your chronotype comes from.
A chronotype is the time of day your body clock prefers for sleep and for effort, and it is partly written in the genes: variants in the PER and CLOCK gene families shift the cycle by minutes to an hour. About 15 to 25 percent of adults are clear morning types, a similar share are clear evening types, and the rest sit in between. The clock also moves with age: it drifts later through the teens, reaches its latest point at around 20 years, and then creeps earlier for the rest of adult life. Women are on average slightly earlier than men until menopause, after which the difference fades. The guide on early birds and night owls goes through the biology.
Social jetlag, and the light that moves the clock.
Most of the trouble with a chronotype is not the type itself but the mismatch with the timetable. Researchers measure it as social jetlag: the difference between the midpoint of sleep on free days and on working days. For many adults that gap is 1 to 2 hours, the equivalent of crossing two time zones every Friday and back every Monday, and larger gaps track with shorter sleep and a higher body weight in population studies. The strongest lever for closing the gap is light: about 30 minutes outdoors within an hour of waking, because even an overcast morning delivers 1,000 lux or more against 300 to 500 lux at a desk; the guide on morning light explains the mechanism. The second lever is a fixed wake time, within 30 minutes on all 7 days. The third is caffeine: with a half-life of around 5 hours, a cup at 14:00 still leaves a quarter of the dose in the blood at midnight, which is why the caffeine cut-off in your plan sits 8 to 10 hours before lights out. Whatever the type, the target stays 7 to 9 hours of sleep; the guide on how much sleep adults need shows where that figure comes from.
What this quiz is not.
Eight questions place you on the scale; the full Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire of 1976 uses 19, and even that is a self-report rather than a measurement of melatonin or core temperature. Treat the result as a starting point for the plan, not as a fixed label. The quiz is also not a screen for sleep disorders. Trouble falling or staying asleep on 3 or more nights a week for 3 months, loud snoring with pauses in breathing, or sleepiness that makes you doze at the wheel are matters for a doctor, whatever your chronotype.
Frequently asked.
Can my chronotype change over the years?
Yes. The clock runs latest at around 20 years of age and then moves earlier, by about 1 to 1.5 hours in total between 20 and 60, so an evening type in their twenties often lands in the middle by their fifties. Light, work hours and children shift the day as well, though the genetic pull stays.
Is being a night owl bad for health?
Not by itself. What tracks with poorer health in the studies is the mismatch: the social jetlag of 1 to 2 hours between free days and working days, and the short sleep that comes with it. An owl who sleeps 7 to 9 hours on a late but steady schedule is doing fine.
How accurate are eight questions?
They sort most people into the right third of the scale, which is what the plan needs. The full questionnaire uses 19 questions and is still a self-report; a laboratory would measure the evening rise of melatonin instead. If your score lands within 2 points of a boundary, read both descriptions and pick the plan that feels closer.
Can I move my clock earlier?
Usually by 30 to 60 minutes, sometimes more, with three habits held for at least 2 weeks: 30 minutes of outdoor light within an hour of waking, the same wake time on all 7 days, and dim light with no caffeine in the 9 hours before bed. The genetic pull stays, so a strong owl becomes a milder owl rather than a lark.
Does the tool store my answers?
It keeps only the name of your type in your own browser, so the page can show your last result next time. The eight answers are not stored and nothing is sent to a server.
Why does the plan stop caffeine so early?
Caffeine has a half-life of around 5 hours, so a large 200 mg coffee at 15:00 still leaves about 50 mg circulating at 1:00. The cut-off sits 8 to 10 hours before your lights-out window, which keeps the dose at bedtime small enough not to lengthen the time it takes to fall asleep.
Guides behind this tool
Life
Early bird or night owl: what your chronotype means
Life
Morning light and the body clock: how much you need
Health
How much sleep adults really need: 7 to 9 hours, and why
Life
Caffeine: when the last cup should beMore tools
The Chronotype Finder is a self-assessment of when your body clock prefers to sleep and work. It is not a sleep disorder screen and not a diagnosis; persistent insomnia, loud snoring with pauses or daytime sleepiness belong with a doctor. This page is for general information and does not replace medical advice.