Association between morningness and resilience in Korean college students

Circadian typology and sleep quality may be essential factors associated with the promotion of resilience. However, previous studies investigating the association between circadian typology and resilience did not analyze the effects of sleep quality on resilience. Thus, the present study evaluated the association between circadian typology and resilience in Korean college students after controlling for sleep quality. Additionally, this study investigated several sleep-related variables, including sleep duration, social jetlag and sunlight exposure during the daytime, to examine the modifiable behavioral features of morningness and also investigated whether the findings regarding morningness-related modifiable habits were associated with resilience. This study included 1094 participants (947 males and 147 females) between 19 and 29 years of age (22.8 ± 1.9 years) who completed the 10-item Korean version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), the Korean version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Korean version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a survey about social jetlag that determined misalignments between weekday and weekend times of awakening and activity duration under conditions of sunlight between 10:00 and 15:00. A multiple linear regression analysis revealed that sleep duration, mean daily sunlight exposure between 10:00 and 15:00 and age were positive predictors of morningness, whereas social jetlag was a negative predictor of morningness. Of these morningness-related modifiable behavioral features, mean daily sunlight exposure between 10:00 and 15:00 significantly predicted greater resilience. An additional multiple linear regression analysis revealed that morningness was a positive predictor of resilience after controlling for age, sex, depression, anxiety and sleep quality. These results support the idea that morningness and better sleep quality are associated with greater resilience. Morningness was also associated with longer sleep duration, longer sunlight exposure during the daytime and less social jetlag, whereas longer daily sunlight exposure between 10:00 and 15:00 was associated with greater resilience. Future longitudinal studies are needed to examine whether manipulations of morningness-related modifiable behavioral features can rearrange chronotype and promote resilience.