Comparison of Chronotypes and their Relationship with Academic Performance and Quality of Life in University Students

Objective An individual's chronotype affects circadian characteristics associated with bedtime, waking, and other daily activities. It is known that academic achievement is strongly dependent on personality traits. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship regarding chronotype, quality of life, and academic performance of university students by comparing three educational fields: medicine, technology, and art. Materials and Methods The present cross-sectional study was conducted with 400 medicine, technology, and art students enrolled at universities in Tehran between2018 and 2019, with convenience sampling from January 2020 to January 2021. The students filled out online questionnaires, including a demographics questionnaire, a quality of life assessment questionnaire (the World Health Organization Quality of Life: Brief Version, WHOQOL-BREF), the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 items (DASS-21). The statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows software, version 22.0 ( p < 0.05). Results A total of 400 students were enrolled in the present study, including 115 medicine, 153 technology, and 132 art students (67.3% of female and 33.7% of male subjects, with a mean age of 21.06 +/- 2.063 years). In spite of the absence of significant differences among the chronotypes of the three groups, there was a significant correlation regarding the chronotypes in all groups and quality of life ( p = 0.005). Morning-type individuals presented better quality of life and better quality of sleep ( p < 0.001; r = 0.175). No significant associations were found involving the students' academic performance and their chronotypes ( p > 0.05; r = 0.026). Conclusion Considering the chronotype's effect of improving the quality of life of students and, therefore, their academic performance, more studies are essential to effectively improve the academic performance of individuals with different chronotypes.