Differences between smokers and nonsmokers in morningness-eveningness

Some factors influencing smoking habits have been identified, but chronotype or the misalignment of social and biological time has rarely been examined. In this study, chronotype was examined and it was found that on average, smokers consumed more coffee, more alcohol, and had less developed breakfast habits compared with nonsmokers. Smokers tended towards eveningness and had a greater difference in wake-up times between week days and free days. Using a canonical discriminant function it was found that breakfast habits, coffee and alcohol consumption, total Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) score, and weekend steep-in separated smokers from nonsmokers, while age and gender were excluded. As late chronotypes do not fit well into conventional social and working schedules, this relationship can be interpreted as a behavioral symptom of the inability to cope with social demands.