School performance in morning-type and evening-type adolescents

Optimal performance depends, among others, on two factors related to time preferred: a) synchrony between time of day at which the task is performed and pupil's chronotype (morning-or evening-type), and b) getting adequate sleep time. Because of school schedules are mostly in the morning, evening-type adolescents may obtain worse school performance since they do not learn neither are tested at their optimal time of day and usually go to bed late even though they must get up early. In this research participated 435 adolescents (12-14 years, fist cycle of Compulsory Secondary Education) who completed the Morningness/Eveningness Scale for Children, MESC, and reported their grades in Spanish Language and Mathematics and their habitual sleep time. Controlling for age and sleep time, evening-type adolescents reported worse grades in Mathematics.