Sunday, November 22, 2015

Sleeping during the day not worth it?

After long nights of studying and what might seem like an even longer school day a nap is the only thing some college students look forward to other than the weekend.  According to research, gene activity is disrupted by sleeping during the day more than not getting enough hours of sleep.  For three days British researchers drew blood from 22 young, healthy individuals to observe the timing of their gene activity during different sleeping schedules.  On the first day, the researchers reset the participants body clock to its natural rhythm by disrupting their sleep at normal intervals.  During this day, after their rhythm was reset, about 1,400 or 6.4% of all genes were in sync with the participants natural rhythm. 

On the second and third day, the researchers had the participants eat and sleep on a 28 hour schedule.  During those hours the longest amount of sleep given to the participants lasted about six and half hours long.  After analyzing the genes linked to the bodies clock about 228 or 1% of genes were in sync with their natural rhythm.  The researchers estimated that disruptions during the sleep schedule or sleeping during the day will influence a third of someones genes.  Because genes are the building blocks of proteins the timing of when they are made are important. During the nighttime the body is in a certain rhythm and doesn't need to think about making these proteins, but during the day the body creates them at only half the speed.
 






4 comments:

  1. I normally use naps during the day to procrastinate, but now i'll think twice when I come home from class! I knew naps were not beneficial (other than the occasional 20 minute power nap when you really need it), but i had no idea it knocks gene activity out of sync. This is good information to know because it's making me rethink the amount of naps I actually take in just one week.

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  2. I'm not sure by what it means by gene activity but I agree, I did not know naps could bring gene activity out of sync. If there is any time I have after classes, I usually try to squeeze in an hour or two for a nap before dinner time. I guess I will try a different alternative to relax my mind after a day of classes.

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  3. This was very interesting, I too like many college kids take the occasional nap during the day but I guess I will have to think twice about that now. I wonder how this applies to people who work the night shift and sleep during the day. I have a lot of family who work the night shift and it would be interesting to know if they are potentially bring their gene activity out of sync because of it.

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  4. It is interesting to see that this post has so many comments. I was drawn to it as well. Naps are near and dear to the hearts of nearly every college student. Whether it's because of poor choices made leading to a lack of sleep, or just a rapid influx of too many assignments, it seems I can never get as much sleep as my body wants. It feels like my body always wants to nap, so it is interesting to see that a nap won't fix that feeling and will in fact throw the body off more.

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