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Chronotype Alignment and Time Perception

NCT07677111 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 240

Last updated 2026-06-30

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

People differ in chronotype - whether they function best in the morning ("larks") or the evening ("owls"). This study asks whether the match or mismatch between a person's chronotype and the time of day at which they are tested changes how they perceive time.

Healthy morning-type and evening-type adults at three sites (Aarhus, Denmark; Changzhou, China; and Hong Kong) complete the same battery of perception and cognition tasks twice - once in the early morning (about 08:00) and once late in the evening (about 22:00), in counterbalanced order. The primary outcome is the accuracy (signed bias) of time-perception judgements; the key comparison is the interaction between chronotype and time of day (the "synchrony effect").

Secondary measures include timing precision, the subjective passage of time, sleepiness, mood, colour perception (with and without blue-blocking glasses) and perceptual decision-making. By testing the same protocol across three cultures and latitudes, the study examines whether circadian match/mismatch effects on temporal cognition generalise across populations.

Conditions

  • Chronotype
  • Circadian Rhythm
  • Sleep
  • Time Perception

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Morning test session (about 08:00)

Full perception and cognition battery administered shortly after habitual wake (about 08:00): time-perception tasks (interval production/estimation, duration discrimination, passage-of-time judgement), state measures (sleepiness, mood, arousal), colour tasks, a perceptual conformity task, and a vigilance task.

BEHAVIORAL

Evening test session (about 22:00)

The identical battery administered late in the evening (about 22:00), enabling within-participant comparison of the same measures at the two times of day.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
55 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-09-01
Primary Completion
2028-06-30
Completion
2028-06-30

Countries

  • Hong Kong

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07677111 on ClinicalTrials.gov