TempoLife › Features › Reaction time test
Reaction test
Wait for green, click, and read your milliseconds. Five trials, a mean and a best, compared with the published reference range — no fake percentiles, nothing stored, nothing sent anywhere.
Your device and input method move the number — a touchscreen is slower than a mouse. Compare against your own previous runs, at the same time of day, on the same device.
The reference range, cited
Kosinski's literature review on reaction time puts mean simple visual reaction time for young adults at roughly 190-250 ms, rising with age and lengthening with fatigue. The spread around those means is wide — individual trials routinely double the mean — so the page reports your mean, your best and every trial rather than hiding the variance behind a single number.
Source: Kosinski RJ, "A literature review on reaction time" (Clemson University, 2008) · checked 2026-09-03
Frequently asked questions
What does the test measure?
Simple visual reaction time: how fast you can respond to a single, expected signal. It is not intelligence, not a game score, and it changes with sleep, caffeine, age and practice — which is exactly why the number is interesting.
What is a normal score?
Published means for simple visual reaction time in young adults run roughly 200-250 ms (Kosinski 2008 review); individual trials spread far wider, and 300 ms on a phone is not 300 ms on a mouse. The honest comparison is you-vs-you.
Why does the wait vary?
A fixed delay would let you anticipate the green. The 2-6 second random wait is the psychomotor-vigilance-test trick that keeps the measurement honest.
Reaction time loves sleep
TempoLife tracks sleep and caffeine next to the day — run the test again after a good night and watch the number.