Whether you are a night owl or early bird may be decided by genes, recent study suggests. Although in previous decades, late sleepers would often just be considered lazy and ‘improper’, people could not have been more wrong than that. Even though once just another representative of the animal reign, who had to be out early to hunt and in early to keep safe from night predators, the human being has evolved and changed a huge amount.
It would appear that similarly to how human genes have developed in plenty of other aspects, they now carry a lot more information than one would believe – one of which would be the kind of sleeper you are. Even if you have a job that has you wake up at 7 AM every day doesn’t make you an early bird; however, the way you feel when waking up at different times will denote what kind of sleeper you are. And apparently the information is stored in your DNA.
A recent study performed on no less than 89,283 individuals of various backgrounds and traits was performed, where subjects submitted their DNA and sleeping pattern information in order for the scientists to be able to determine where there are any common elements between people whose circadian rhythms possess the same patterns.
According to the large scale study, researchers have found that there are no less than 15 versions of genes that play a role in making you either a late sleeper or a morning person. Out of the 15 genetic variants, seven seemed to play a direct role in the circadian rhythm, while the others were related to sensing light. While some, if not most of us have been living our lives thinking that whether we were late sleepers or morning people was just part of who we were, it would appear that there is a strong biological reason behind it too.
According to the study, most people over 60 deemed themselves morning people, while in the age range below that, the statistic showed that 48.4% of the women and only 39.7% of the men said they were early wakers. Thanks to this study, scientists can start looking into genetics as the reason behind a wide variety of conditions and diseases.
The study was conducted by consumer genetics company 23andMe.
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Deborah Campbell
