This article was written in collaboration with Camilla Kring.

You've set three alarms. Then you hit snooze twice. Now you're running late again, gulping coffee and knowing you'll pay for skipping breakfast later.

You wonder what's wrong with you. Why can't you just go to sleep earlier? Why do you need an alarm clock to function?

Only it’s not just you—not even close. More than 80 percent of the population uses alarm clocks to wake up earlier than their body naturally would. They are socially jet-lagged. What society judges as a discipline problem is in fact a design problem: Modern schedules don't match most people's biology.

What comes to your mind when people mention neurodiversity? Many immediately think of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyslexia, or equate neurodiversity with cognitive diversity—different ways of thinking or processing information. However, these interpretations are narrow—and insufficient for supporting neurologically friendly and safe environments.

Neurodiversity is neurological diversity: the full range of ways human nervous systems can be wired. It encompasses cognition, emotion, sensory processing, motor coordination, speech, and, crucially, circadian regulation: how our nervous systems manage sleep-wake timing, energy fluctuations, and daily rhythms. The neurodiversity framework offers much for understanding and addressing the difficulties faced by people who experience time differently than the dominant culture dictates.

At the broadest level, biodiversity describes variation among species within ecosystems. Human diversity encompasses all variations that make humans unique. Neurodiversity can be seen as a dimension of human diversity: the neurological variation that underlies our cognition, personalities, and more. Chronodiversity, then, is a temporal expression of neurodiversity that reflects differences in how our nervous systems regulate circadian timing.

Nick Walker1 explained that neuronormativity—the enforcement of neurotypical standards as "normal"—is socially constructed and culturally instilled. It often results in pathologizing neurological differences, while in reality, what society labels "disorder" often reflects a mismatch between individual neurology and environmental demands.

Elizabeth Freeman2 used the term chrononormativity to describe how societies enforce preferred temporal rhythms, organizing individual bodies according to societal assumptions about productivity and creating the illusion that particular timing patterns are natural rather than culturally constructed.

A parallel between neurodiversity and chronodiversity is that societies and cultures treat forms of neurological wiring and time orientation as normative and others as aberrant. While neurodiversity and chronodiversity are biological facts, neuronormativity and chrononormativity are the social enforcement of what is deemed to be "normal."

Consider this example:

It's 10 p.m., and a parent has been trying to get the 9-year-old to sleep for an hour. Tomorrow's a school day. She needs to be up at 6 a.m. But she's wide awake, reading under the covers with a flashlight, negotiating for "just five more minutes," genuinely confused about why bedtime is such a big deal.

Meanwhile, her sibling crashed at 8:30 p.m. without protest and will bounce out of bed tomorrow before dawn, cheerful and ready. Same household. Same rules. Completely different internal clocks.

Yet, society judges the parents of chronodivergent kids as inadequate and labels the kids as undisciplined. Those labels, internalized, become painful and punitive self-talk.

There has to be a better way.

The timing structures of modern work and life—early meetings, fixed hours, morning-centric performance expectations—were inherited from agricultural and industrial time systems. But they were never designed for biological reality, and those whose bodies do not “fit” cultural models pay a significant price not only in fatigue but also in mental (e.g., depression) and physical health (e.g., cardiovascular risks, metabolic dysfunction). The healthcare cost of this preventable damage also adds up.

Population-scale research indicates that chronotype follows a normal distribution, with approximately 25 percent early, 50 percent intermediate, and 25 percent late chronotypes. Among specific populations, the distribution skews later—studies of young adults consistently find the prevalence of evening types.

The consequences of the mismatch between our biological patterns on the one hand and early work start and long commutes on the other are measurable. Chronic misalignment between biological and social time—social jetlag—produces accumulating sleep debt, cognitive function loss, and increased health risks. Morning people are not spared misalignment either—think late shifts or losing their most productive hours to the commute.

Neurodivergent populations are disproportionately impacted. Research demonstrates that adults with ADHD exhibit delayed circadian rhythm phase, with up to 75-78 percent showing significantly later timing of physiological sleep readiness and preferred sleep-wake schedules compared to neurotypical peers. Autistic individuals also frequently experience irregular or delayed sleep-wake patterns. This means that for many neurodivergent people, the mismatch between their biology and social expectations is compounded. They might already be navigating sensory differences or communication styles that don't match social norms. Add chronic sleep deprivation from fighting their circadian rhythm, and you have a recipe for exhaustion and health problems.

These struggles are not “poor behavioral choices” or signs of “insufficient discipline.” They are neurological realities stemming from genetic, neurological, and hormonal processes, coupled with the lack of cultural understanding.

Solutions exist. Some places are already implementing them:

The big cultural question is, why should there be only one schedule for all? There's no biological or practical reason for it. The technology to facilitate flexibility exists. Examples of success exist. What's missing is the broader recognition that forcing chrono-conformity is harming people unnecessarily.

Chronodiversity is neurodiversity, and neurodiversity is us.

Some sections of this post also appear in Fast Company.

References

1. Walker, N. (2021). Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities.

2. Freeman, E. (2010). Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories. Duke University Press.

© Psychology Today