A time to wander: exploring associations between components of circadian functioning, mind wandering typology, and time-of-day

Eveningness has previously been associated with more frequent mind wandering (MW). The current study re-investigated this association for components of circadian functioning, and MW typology. Questionnaire measures of Morning Affect, Eveningness, and (amplitude) Distinctness, deliberate and spontaneous MW, problem-solving daydreams, sleep quality, personality, affect, and life satisfaction were completed by 265 university students (aged 18–33, mean = 20.78), who also reported the peak time for daily MW and problem-solving daydreams. Spontaneous MW correlated with low Morning Affect and stronger Distinctness; these all correlated with poor sleep quality, less conscientiousness, less positive affect, less life satisfaction, more neuroticism, and more negative affect. Problem-solving daydreams positively correlated with Morning Affect. Significant mediators between morningness-eveningness and spontaneous MW were sleep quality, positive affect, and conscientiousness, which were also significant with Morning Affect as the predictor for spontaneous MW; sleep quality and positive affect were significant with Distinctness as the predictor for spontaneous MW. Exploratory path analysis indicated inter-relationships between Eveningness, Morning Affect, subjective sleep quality, conscientiousness, spontaneous MW, and negative affect. Spontaneous and deliberate MW showed some evidence of peak frequency at the non-preferred time-of-day. These results indicate that components of circadian functioning have varying relationships with different types of mind wandering/daydreaming.