Abstract
Objective
The evening (“night owl”) chronotype is associated with greater severity and lifetime
prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms compared to morning or
intermediate chronotypes. This twin study investigated the gene-environment relationships
between chronotype, recent PTSD symptoms, and lifetime intrusive symptoms.
Methods
We used the reduced Horne-Östberg Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) to
assess chronotype in a sample of 3777 same-sex adult twin pairs raised together (70.4%
monozygotic, 29.6% dizygotic) in the community-based Washington State Twin Registry.
PTSD symptoms were reported on the Impact of Events Scale (IES) and a single item
for lifetime experience of intrusive symptoms after a stressful or traumatic event.
Results
Genetic influences accounted for 50% of chronotype variance, 30% of IES score variance,
and 14% of lifetime intrusive symptom variance. Bivariate twin models showed a phenotypic
association (bp) between evening chronotype and more severe PTSD symptoms (bp = −0.16, SE = 0.02, p < .001) that remained significant even after adjusting for shared genetic and environmental
influences (bp = −0.10, SE = 0.04, p = .009), as well as age, sex, and self-reported sleep duration (bp = −0.11, SE = 0.04, p = .004). An association was found between evening chronotype and lifetime intrusive
symptoms (bp = −0.11, SE = 0.03, p < .001) that was no longer significant after adjusting for shared genetic and environmental
influences (bp = 0.04, SE = 0.06, p = .558).
Conclusions
Our results suggest a “quasi-causal” relationship between evening chronotype and PTSD
symptoms that is not purely attributable to genetic or shared environmental factors.
Evening chronotype may increase vulnerability to pathologic stress responses in the
setting of circadian misalignment, providing potential avenues of prevention and treatment
using chronobiological strategies.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 10, 2023
Accepted:
January 11,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 10,
2023
Received:
July 31,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
Institution where work was performed: University of Washington, Washington State University.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of National Sleep Foundation.
