Abstract:
Most discussions about sleep is of hours, not of the deeper pattern between periods of wakefulness with energy and time for rest: our sleep chronotype. This article challenges the idea that chronotypes are fixed for life-this is a place where genetics may set an initial baseline but further shifting by age, environment, light exposure, and daily habits continue to reshape it. It explores three core themes:
- The biological, environmental, and social factors that influence chronotype.
- The science on how and when chronotypes can shift in both adults and teenagers.
- Practical strategies—light exposure, consistent routines, and gradual schedule adjustments—to align energy with lifestyle.
Supported by evidence from neuroscience yet written in clear, accessible language, the article demonstrates that small changes in your sleep type can lift mood, boost focus, make sleep better, and help health last long. The message is simple: you are not set in one beat for life. With thought, your inner clock can be changed to fit the life you want to lead.
Introduction:
Some people spring out of bed ready to tackle the day before the sun is even up. Others don’t hit their stride until late in the evening, feeling most alive when the world quiets down. If you’ve ever felt out of sync with your daily schedule, you’re not alone — and you’re not broken. What you’re experiencing may be linked to something called your sleep chronotype.
Think of your Chronotype as your internal clock. It’s what influences the time of day you’ll naturally feel your best—alert, focused, and even ready to sleep. That’s why some of us wake to a clear head at dawn, while others find our rhythm comes at nightfall. Your Chronotype isn’t just about sleep. It plays into your energy, focus, and mood. It even impacts how your body processes food.
Understanding when your chronotype can help explain why some schedules leave you feeling drained while others bring out the best in you. It has more to do with when you like to go to bed. More about how you go through your day and how your brain and body work at different times.
But here’s the real question: “Can you change your chronotype”, or “Are you stuck with the one you were born with?”
In this article, we’ll explore where chronotypes come from, what influences them, and whether or not you can change yours. We’ll look at new research that challenges the idea that you’re “just not a morning person” or “always a night owl.” And most importantly, we’ll look at how understanding your chronotype can help you take better control of your energy, your performance, and your well-being—starting today.
Section 1: What Affects Your Sleep Chronotype? (And Why It’s Not Just Genetics)
When it comes to how your body prefers to move through the day, when you feel awake and alert, focused, or tired, it’s easy to assume your sleep chronotype is fixed in your DNA. And to some extent, that’s true. But while chronotype is biology influenced, it is not just genes that spell out the chronotype. It’s an amalgamation of elements such as age, sex lifestyle, environment as well as family among others.
Let’s look more closely at what really shapes your internal clock.
1.1 The Biological Blueprint
Science shows that your genes do influence your chronotype. Twin studies, in particular, have given us insight into how much of our daily rhythm is inherited. According to a study on young adult twins by Barclay and colleagues, about 28% to 52% of the variation in whether someone is a morning person or a night owl comes from genetics.
That’s a considerable proportion. It also implies that as much as 50% of your chronotype could be determined by factors other than your genetic disposition.
Think of it like this: your genes might give you a default setting but that setting is adjustable. Just like you can tune the brightness on your phone screen, your life circumstances and habits can dim or brighten your natural preferences. That’s why it’s possible to change your chronotype gradually—if your lifestyle supports the shift.
Evidence: Barclay et al., 2010 study investigates whether genetic factors underlie both chronotype (morningness-eveningness) and sleep quality in young adults.1
1.2 How Age and Sex Influence Your Sleep Chronotype
You aren’t the same sleeper at 15 as you are at 45—and your chronotype shifts along the way. One of the biggest influences on chronotype is age.
Children often start life as natural early risers. However, as they develop into teenagers, their circadian rhythm tends to incline them towards being up later and sleeping in longer. This progression peaks in late adolescence or early adulthood. Then, as individuals grow older, this progression of when they would like to sleep creeps forward once more.
In other words, if you’re not a morning person now, age, and hormonal shifts may gradually shift your sleep chronotype to earlier rhythms.
There are also some patterns when it comes to sex. Research by Adan and Natale found that, on average, men tend to lean more toward eveningness than women. This of course isn’t set in stone- but it does show that biological sex also can have a hand in shaping sleep patterns.
So, whether you’re lying wide awake at midnight or rising with the sun, a piece of that may come down to your age or the hormones you’re producing rather than just timetable.
Evidence: Adan & Natale study examines how men and women differ in their chronotype, finding that women tend to be more morning-oriented than men2
1.3 How Family and Social Routines Affect Your Sleep Chronotype
Biology may set up the base, but life may imprint the finish. Your sleep chronotype becomes tailored to the culture and practices surrounding you—often unbeknownst to you.
Think about all the routines tied up with work schedules, family or social commitments, or any of them. If you live in a household where all people eat late, stay up watching television or early for school or jobs – your body starts going to these patterns, even if that is not what your biological set prefers.
Leonhard and Randler in their research examined the relations in the family regarding sleep and wake times with regard to women. They argued that partners and children could substantially alter a person’s circadian rhythm because of the synchronization of daily activities performed in shared households.
This syncing can make your internal alarm clock more flexible. The body, after all, is adaptable. It tries to keep pace with what’s expected of it. But it can also lead to what researchers call “social jetlag”—the feeling of being constantly out of sync with your own natural rhythm.
Evidence: Leonhard & Randler research explores how family dynamics, including children and partners, shape women’s circadian rhythms and social schedules.3
1.4 How Light and Environment Affect Your Sleep Chronotype
Finally, we cannot ignore the environment because light is one of the most powerful tools for regulating your internal clock—especially when trying to adjust or reset your sleep chronotype. The exposure to light, particularly daylight, greatly influences in setting the beat for the circadian rhythm. People who stay around the equator- where hours of sunlight are more consistent between different times of the year- tend to have varied patterns of chronotype compared with people at higher latitudes where seasons vastly alter the daylight.
A review by Randler and Rahafar highlighted how latitude, seasonal changes, and light exposure can shift someone’s morning or evening preferences. For instance, longer daylight in summer might naturally pull people into earlier rising patterns, while dark winters could push them toward later schedules.
Even artificial light from screens and indoor overhead lights or general nighttime city glow can fool your brain into staying up later than it actually would. In fact, many researchers are now looking into bright light therapy solutions to re-establish the circadian rhythms and facilitate the intentional shifting of chronotypes.
Evidence: Randler & Rahafar review supports the idea that people living closer to the equator are more evening-oriented, highlighting environmental influences on chronotype. 4
The Bigger Picture
So, while your chronotype may start with your genes, it doesn’t end there. It evolves with your age. It bends around your relationships and routines. And it reacts to the light and seasons in your environment.
Your internal clock is more like a compass than a stopwatch—it points in a general direction, but it can be influenced by the terrain you’re navigating. And that’s good news. Because it means that even if you don’t love the way your body’s rhythm fits your current life, you’re not stuck with it forever — and yes, you can change your chronotype over time.
Section 2: Is Your Chronotype Fixed or Can It Change?
Maybe you’ve tried waking up early for weeks, hoping to finally become a morning person. Or maybe you’ve forced yourself to stay up later for work, waiting for your body to “adjust.” And yet, despite your efforts, your energy still seems to follow its own internal clock, no matter what you do.
So what gives? Can you actually change your chronotype, or are you stuck with the one you’ve always had?
To answer this, let’s look at what one of the largest and most revealing studies to date found about real-world changes in chronotype over time.
2.1 What 37,000 Nurses Taught Us About Changing Chronotypes
In a 2024 study led by researchers De Bruijn and colleagues, over 37,000 female nurses were tracked across six years. These weren’t lab participants under artificial conditions. These were working adults with busy, often irregular schedules—including night shifts and rotating shifts. In other words, people whose lives naturally challenged their internal clocks.
The researchers wanted to know: Would their chronotypes remain the same, or shift over time?
Evidence: De Bruijn et al study links chronotype to shift work adaptation and health outcomes in female nurses, emphasizing the relevance of chronotype in occupational settings..5
2.2 How Chronotypes Actually Shift Over Time
The results were surprising—but also grounded in reality.
- 57% of participants kept the same chronotype over the six-year period.
- 43% experienced a shift—though most of those shifts were small. Typically, they moved just one level on a five-point chronotype scale.
- Major shifts (like moving from extreme night owl to a full morning person) were rare, occurring in fewer than 2% of participants.
This speaks of a simple fact: change is possible but happens at a slow and low pace.
Chronotype isn’t an on-and-off thing. More like adjusting a dimmer. You may not become an entirely new person but you can change your chronotype gradually that supports your lifestyle better.
2.3 How Age Affects Your Sleep Chronotype Over Time
Another interesting finding from the study had to do with age.
Every decade of life appeared to reduce the chance of change chronotype by about 6%. That means the older we get, the more our internal clocks tend to settle into place.
This makes sense when you consider how the internal clock develops. When we are younger, that is during our teenage years and twenties, most say that individuals at this stage prefer late sleep thus their bodies are still adjusting. As we grow older, it is easier to say that people tend to stabilize; stabilizing in many aspects like developing a stable household, stabilizing sleep-wake cycles, even preferences to different things. This doesn’t mean older adults can’t shift their rhythms. But can you change your chronotype as you age? Yes—but it usually requires more time and conscious effort.
2.4 Can You Change Your Chronotype—Or Is It Fixed?
The short answer: not entirely.
Chronotype is, for the most part, a stable phenomenon, especially at higher age levels. Its determination is embedded within the matrix of biology, the environment, and the life stage and then frozen. However, small shifts do occur, and they matter. The movement of even one category toward more alignment brings tangible gains in energy, sleep quality, and mood.
This kind of understanding helps break out of the rigid “morning person vs night owl” thinking. You are not ‘a night owl’ or ‘a morning person’. You are someone with a baseline rhythm that may harden over time, especially if you help it along with the right tools, routines, and awareness.
So no, your sleep chronotype isn’t necessarily stuck. But it also won’t change on its own. The key lies in understanding what’s possible—and being intentional about creating the conditions for it.
Section 3: Can Adults Really Change Their Chronotype?
If you’ve ever said, “I’m just not a morning person,” you’ll feel like it’s just a fixed truth. Like something hardwired into you. But what if that’s not the whole story? What if your internal clock isn’t as fixed as you’ve been led to believe?
Most people believe that the sleep chronotypes become ‘fixed’ once an individual has attained adult status – but recent studies beg to differ. Indeed, your sleep chronotype – that is, the inherent preference for being awake and alert at certain times – has some foundation in biology although it is by no means a forever kind of situation since even adults can have their ‘internal clocks’ shifted under the right conditions.
3.1 Using Morning Light to Shift Your Sleep Chronotype
One of the most powerful tools researchers have studied for shifting chronotype in adults is bright light therapy. You can think of light as a kind of reset button for your brain. Just like the sun rising signals the start of the day for the earth, exposure to light—especially in the morning—can signal to your brain that it’s time to wake up, become alert, and get moving.
In a 2022 study by Chan and colleagues, researchers explored whether adults who identified as night owls could shift their internal rhythm using a simple, consistent routine of morning light.
Evidence: Chan et al. study shows that shifting from an evening to a more morning-oriented chronotype can lead to better long-term treatment outcomes in depressed individuals. 6
3.2 How Bright Light Therapy Helped Adults Change Their Chronotype
The study followed 91 adults with clinical depression who also identified as night owls—those with a strong evening chronotype. For five weeks, participants received early-morning bright light therapy—a timed exposure to artificial light that mimics natural sunlight.
Each participant sat in front of a light box for a short period soon after waking. This wasn’t about fixing sleep problems directly. Instead, the goal was to help shift their internal clocks earlier—essentially nudging their bodies to align more closely with morning activity patterns.
3.3 What Actually Changed?
The results were eye-opening.
After five weeks, 36% of the participants who started out as night owls sleep chronotype had shifted to what researchers called a “neutral” chronotype. That means they no longer showed a strong preference for late nights and instead felt more balanced between morning and evening tendencies.
Even more interesting, these shifts weren’t just psychological. Participants started falling asleep and waking up earlier than before. Daily rhythms were the first to switch to this kind of pattern.
And there was another principal benefit: improved mood. More remissions were experienced by chronotype shifters from depression as compared to non-shifters. That is, perhaps the change in sleep-wake rhythm could have been a help to improving mental health.
This supports the idea that changing your sleep chronotype—especially through methods like bright light therapy solutions—can directly influence emotional states like mood and depression.
3.4 The Benefit That Lasted
But does this change stick? That’s a fair question—especially if you’ve ever tried a new routine only to slide back into old habits.
The participants were also followed up with after five months, and the benefits were found to persist. Those who had shifted their chronotype exhibited better mental health and more stable sleep patterns as compared to the rest.
Some of these simple interventions helped people change their chronotype long-term—not just their daily rhythm but also their emotional well-being.
So, Can You Really Shift Your Chronotype?
This study offers a hopeful answer to the question, “Can you change your chronotype?” yes, it’s possible—especially when you approach it with consistency and the right tools.
Think of it more like a dimmer switch than an on-off chronotype; you have some tendency toward morning or evening, but environment and habit have a great deal to say in the matter. A little support, a little system, and some patience will make your rhythm gradually increase into a pattern more favorable to your lifestyle and mental health.
Light is one tool. Others include regular sleep and wake times, reducing screen exposure at night, and gradually adjusting your routine by just 15–30 minutes at a time.
You don’t have to become a 5 a.m. jogger overnight. Small, consistent changes can still make a huge difference. Most importantly, they can help align your energy with your goals—not constantly fighting your body, but working with it.
Section 4: Can Teenagers Change Their Chronotype or Are They Stuck as Night Owls?
4.1 The Teen Sleep Struggle
If you’ve ever tried waking a teenager before dawn, you know the feeling of dragging someone out of hibernation. It’s not just laziness or bad habits—many teens are biologically wired to be night owls.
Naturally, as a teenager, the brain makes the shift towards a later sleep-wake cycle. Feeling more awake in the evening, they find it hard to go to sleep when school starts early in the morning and has full schedules that force them to wake up way before their bodies would naturally want to. The result? Chronic sleep deprivation.
Such a mismatch between their internal clock and the timing of the world does not only create the morning as a miserable time for them. Mood, learning, memory, and overall mental health all fall victim. No wonder so many teens feel foggy, irritable, and emotionally drained by midweek. The ‘system’ does not suppose how their bodies and brains actually work.
But does that mean there’s nothing we can do about it?
4.2 The TranS-C Sleep Intervention
A study led by psychologist Allison Harvey in 2018 set out to answer that question. The researchers worked with 176 teenagers who identified as night owls—those who preferred staying up late and struggled with sleep timing.
The teens were divided into two groups. One group received psychoeducation—basic sleep advice and information. The other group participated in a targeted program called TranS-C, short for Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention for Youth.
TranS-C was not about telling teens to go to bed earlier, it included several practical strategies such as understanding sleep patterns, adjusting light exposure—similar to bright light therapy used in adults, encouraging consistent routines plus managing any thoughts or behaviors that might be getting in the way of rest.
The goal? Not to force teens into being morning people- but to assist them in shifting their internal clocks just enough so that they feel more rested and better synced with their daily lives.
Evidence: Harvey et al. demonstrated that a targeted intervention could successfully shift adolescents with evening chronotype toward earlier sleep timing and improve mental health outcomes7
4.3 How Teen Chronotypes Improved Biologically and Behaviorally
The results were striking.
In the TranS-C group, teens started falling asleep earlier-and were waking up more refreshed. A key biological marker DLMO (dim light melatonin onset)-which indicates to the brain that it is ready for sleep shifted to an earlier time. This meant their actual circadian rhythm-the body’s internal timing system was adjusting not just their behavior.
Along with the bio changes, there were noticeable alterations in daily functioning. Teens reported good quality sleep at night, more energetic during the day, and can concentrate better in school. Parents and teachers noticed a difference.
4.4 Outcome Comparison
While both groups received some benefit, the teens who went through TranS-C saw far more meaningful change than those who only received general advice.
Not only did their sleep timing improve, but their overall well-being improved too. TranS-C didn’t just teach them about sleep—it helped them live it.
What this tells us is powerful: Even in a phase of life where late nights feel natural, this shows that you can change your chronotype. With the right support and tools, teens can shift their internal clocks in ways that improve both health and performance.
And while school systems still have a long way to go in aligning with teen biology, interventions like TranS-C offer hope. They show that we’re not powerless against the pull of night-time—and that with care, education, and structure, even teens can reclaim rest and thrive.
Section 5: Why Your Chronotype Matters for Health, Mood, and Performance
You might think of your sleep chronotype as a personal preference—just the way you are. But it actually runs deeper than that. The alignment (or misalignment of your internal clock) between your internal clock and the world around you has real consequences, not just for how you feel during the day, but for your long-term health, emotional well-being, and even how well you work.
Let’s break down what’s at stake when your daily routine doesn’t match your natural rhythm—and how adjusting it might help you feel and function better.
5.1 How Chronotype Misalignment Impacts Mental Health
Imagine constantly being asked to run a race when your body wants to rest, all because you are out of sync with your chronotype. The time period can wear you down, doing so over time.
This is what is known as circadian misalignment, that state where the human sleep-wake cycle is at variance with environmental demands or requirements, ie, you may be waking up early for work when your body wants to sleep or staying up late trying to finish tasks when your mind is already slowing down.
Research has demonstrated that such misalignment elevates your exposure to mental health struggles. People who keep going against the grain of their natural rhythm will be much more prone to symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is not just about being tired; your brain and emotional systems are running in a stressed state trying to work at the wrong times.
When you’re constantly forcing your body and mind to perform on someone else’s schedule, it can feel like you’re swimming upstream every day.
5.2 Why Night Owls Face More Physical Health Risks
Your chronotype does not only affect how you feel but also influences how your body works.
People who consider themselves evening chronotypes—or those with a night owl sleep chronotype have more problems in the matter of physical health. It has been found through studies that they are at a higher risk of weight gain over time, suffer from metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, and even show signs of weakened immune function.
Why does this happen? One of the explanations is lifestyle mismanagement. Staying up late but getting up early for work or skipping meals because time comes around to keep it on schedule, kinds of stuff like digestion, the manner in which hormones work, and the way energy is used may get knocked out of balance. How one sleeps, eats, and moves tends to be quite important.
When your body doesn’t get the rest or rhythm it needs, it starts compensating in less-than-ideal ways. Cravings increase. Energy dips become more frequent. Inflammation can rise. Over time, this takes a toll on your physical resilience.
5.3 How Your Chronotype Affects Productivity and Cognitive Performance
Most of the world runs on an early schedule—school starts in the morning, meetings are booked before noon, and deadlines pile up long before the evening arrives.
This creates an advantage for morning types. Research shows that people with earlier chronotypes tend to perform better in traditional work settings. They’re alert, focused, and ready to go when the day starts.
Night owls will most probably be dragging their feet through the earlier part of the day reaching their peak when the time in work is over. This is not about discipline, it’s about biology and your internal alarm clock trying to follow a different beat. Just give them hours that run differently.
This mismatch can lead to low productivity, heightened stress, and even a mislabeled reputation for being late or slovenly—just because they are out of sync with the clock by which society chooses to operate.
5.4 How to Realign Your Chronotype for Better Energy and Focus
The good news is, you’re not completely at the mercy of your chronotype. You don’t have to accept poor sleep, low energy, or daily fatigue as your norm.
Chronotherapy is one of several bright light therapy solutions that help gradual shifting of your internal clock back to a more reasonable lifestyle over Lucifer Light Targeted exercise, scheduled routines, and sleep routines can accomplish this. It’s a way to re-synchronize your body with your life.
For example, bright light in the morning tells your brain it is time to wake up. Going to bed at the same time each night each evening of the week stabilizes. Allotment of varied times for eating can hedge against those changes.
These little yet incremental shifts will further the cause of alignment and enhance psychological as well as physiological well-being and health in the bargain. If you’re wondering how to fix your sleep schedule, these steps offer a practical starting point. You may find that you sleep better, are more focused, and don’t have as many emotional highs and lows.
Your chronotype matters — but it should not define your borders. When you know how it operates and how to help it work, you should reclaim your energy and make a lifestyle that actually fits you.
Conclusion:
“Chronotypes Are Real, But They’re Not Rigid”
You may have heard that you are simply “not a morning person” or that you’re stuck with your sleep chronotype, destined to go to bed late. All true, to some extent, but as with many things biological in nature, it’s not as cut and dried as that.
Yes, genes do play a role. But so do your environment, your lifestyle, your habits, even your exposure to light, in a word, pretty much everything that makes you you all affect how your internal clock ticks. In other words, it’s not all about your biology. You can use the right tools and support, and it’s possible to tune your sleep rhythm so it’s more in line with the life you want to lead.
So, can you change your chronotype? While it may not shift dramatically overnight, science shows that intentional habits really do help. And the results can be both powerful and lasting.
Techniques like bright light therapy, sleep-focused education, and structured daily routines have shown promising results in helping people shift their chronotypes in healthy and lasting ways. Whether you’re an adult struggling to focus in the morning or a teenager fighting an early school schedule, change is possible. And the benefits go far beyond simply falling asleep earlier or waking up on time.
Small changes in your chronotype can lead to substantial improvements in how well you sleep, how sharp you are, how balanced you feel, and how productive you are in the course of your day. Everything seems a bit easier when your internal clock works along the lines of your lifestyle rather than fighting it.
The key is mindfulness and understanding that one’s energy can be harnessed rather than drained because any natural flow can change. You’re not stuck in one version of you. Your brain and body are flexible. And figuring out how to leverage your chronotype rather than fight it may help you feel more centered, more relaxed, and more in sync with who you really are.