Chronotype, daily affect and social contact: An ecological momentary assessment study

Diurnal variation in anxiety and activity is influenced by chronotype and probable anxiety-related disorder status

Anxiety symptoms vary moment-to-moment within a day. One factor that may influence these variations is chronotype. Evening chronotypes prefer to engage in activities (e.g., sleep, physical and social activity) later in the day, and evening chronotype is implicated in psychopathology, including anxiety-related disorders. However, it is unknown whether chronotype influences diurnal variation in anxiety symptoms and whether these effects are amplified in individuals with a probable anxiety-related disorder. We examined the diurnal variation in anxiety symptoms and daily activities in morning and evening chronotypes with and without probable generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a community sample of adults (N = 410). Evening chronotypes reported higher anxiety symptoms, particularly in the evening hours, and lower engagement in daily activities, predominantly in the morning hours. Evening chronotypes with probable GAD or OCD reported worse anxiety symptoms in the evening. Our findings indicate that anxiety symptoms and engagement in daily activities fluctuate considerably across the day, and these patterns differ depending on chronotype. Evening chronotypes have more anxiety symptoms in the evening, despite preferring this time of day. Personalized treatment approaches that consider chronotype and target certain times of day may be efficient in alleviating peaks in anxiety symptoms.

The Interplay between Chronotype and Emotion Regulation in the Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion

Emotion regulation strategies affect the experience and processing of emotions and emotional stimuli. Chronotype has also been shown to influence the processing of emotional stimuli, with late chronotypes showing a bias towards better processing of negative stimuli. Additionally, greater eveningness has been associated with increased difficulties in emotion regulation and preferential use of expressive suppression strategies. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand the interplay between chronotype and emotion regulation on the recognition of dynamic facial expressions of emotion. To that end, 287 participants answered self-report measures and performed an online facial emotion recognition task from short video clips where a neutral face gradually morphed into a full-emotion expression (one of the six basic emotions). Participants should press the spacebar to stop each video as soon as they could recognize the emotional expression, and then identify it from six provided labels/emotions. Greater eveningness was associated with shorter response times (RT) in the identification of sadness, disgust and happiness. Higher scores of expressive suppression were associated with longer RT in identifying sadness, disgust, anger and surprise. Expressive suppression significantly moderated the relationship between chronotype and the recognition of sadness and anger, with chronotype being a significant predictor of emotion recognition times only at higher levels of expressive suppression. No significant effects were observed for cognitive reappraisal. These results are consistent with a negative bias in emotion processing in late chronotypes and increased difficulty in anger and sadness recognition for expressive suppressor morning-types.