REGULARITY OF DAILY-LIFE IN RELATION TO PERSONALITY, AGE, GENDER, SLEEP QUALITY AND CIRCADIAN-RHYTHMS

A diary-like instrument to measure lifestyle regularity (the 'Social R hythm Metric' CRM) was given to 96 subjects (48 women, 48 men), 39 of whom repeated the study after at least one year, with additional objec tive measures of rest/activity. Lifestyle regularity as measured by th e SRM related to age, morningness, subjective sleep quality and time-o f-day variations in alertness, but not to gender, extroversion or neur oticism. Statistically significant test-retest correlations of about 0 .4 emerged for SRM scores over the 12-30 month delay. Diary-based esti mates of bedtime and waketime appeared fairly reliable. In a further s tudy of healthy young men, 4 high SRM scorers ('regular') had a deeper nocturnal body temperature trough than 5 low SRM scorers ('irregular' ), suggesting a better functioning circadian system in the 'regular' g roup.