ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Association Between Chronotype and Mental Health Problems in a University Population: a Systematic Review of the Literature Efrosini A. Papaconstantinou 1,2 & Heather Shearer 2 & Nancy Fynn-Sackey 1 & Kathy Smith 1,2 & Anne Taylor-Vaisey 2 & Pierre Côté 1,2,3 Published online: 18 October 2018 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety represent a growing health concern among post-secondary students. Mental health and sleep problems tend to co- occur and circadian preference may have implications for mental health outcomes. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to synthesize the existing evidence on the association between circadian typology and mental health symptomatology in students pursuing higher education. We systematically searched three databases from inception to November 2017 to identify potentially relevant articles. A total of 3097 articles were screened, 75 were critically appraised, and 3 had low or moderate risk of bias. Preliminary evidence suggests that sleep preference is associated with depressive and/or anxiety symptomatology in undergraduate university students. The role of sleep preference as a risk factor for depressive and/or anxiety symptomatology needs to be evaluated in cohort studies. Keywords Mental health . Post-secondary student . University students . Collegestudents . Sleep . Circadian preference . Chronotype . Sleep-wake patterns . Systematic review Background It is estimated that 20% of Canadians will experience a mental health or addiction problem in any given year (Smetanin et al. 2011). Adolescents and young adults are more likely to International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction (2019) 17:716–730 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-0006-6 * Efrosini A. Papaconstantinou efrosini.papaconstantinou@uoit.ca 1 University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), UA 3031—2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada 2 UOIT-CMCC Centre for Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation, Toronto, Canada 3 Canada Research Chair in Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation, Toronto, Canada