Interplay of chronotype and school timing predicts school performance

Andrea P. Goldin, Mariano Sigman, Gisela Braier, Diego A. Golombek and María J. Leone ()
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Andrea P. Goldin: CONICET, Laboratorio de Neurociencia
Gisela Braier: CONICET, Laboratorio de Neurociencia
Diego A. Golombek: CONICET, Laboratorio de Cronobiología, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología
María J. Leone: CONICET, Laboratorio de Neurociencia

Nature Human Behaviour, 2020, vol. 4, issue 4, 387-396

Abstract: Abstract Most adolescents exhibit very late chronotypes and attend school early in the morning, a misalignment that can affect their health and psychological well-being. Here we examine how the interaction between the chronotype and school timing of an individual influences academic performance, studying a unique sample of 753 Argentinian students who were randomly assigned to start school in the morning (07:45), afternoon (12:40) or evening (17:20). Although chronotypes tend to align partially with class time, this effect is insufficient to fully account for the differences with school start time. We show that (1) for morning-attending students, early chronotypes perform better than late chronotypes in all school subjects, an effect that is largest for maths; (2) this effect vanishes for students who attend school in the afternoon; and (3) late chronotypes benefit from evening classes. Together, these results demonstrate that academic performance is improved when school times are better aligned with the biological rhythms of adolescents.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0820-2

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