Friday, December 4, 2020

Why does my body wake me up around 3am every night?

 What makes us tick: A peek into our biological clock


Many factors play a role as to why a person wakes up at a specific time every day/night. Anxiety, bright light, hormone levels, acid reflux, jet lag among many others can affect a person's sleep cycle. A biological clock regulates the bodies timing process and with that comes circadian rhythm that controls a person's sleep cycle, which includes REM sleep and non-REM sleep. These are steps in the sleep cycle, which are important to help stimulate the brain and allow it to rest. According to "The Conversation", there are at least 15 genes within the body that help control the sleep cycle. SIKI, is a gene that revealed a new pathway relating to resetting the a person's internal clock. Another gene discovered gives someone a big advantage especially if they fly to different time zones a lot. ID2 is a gene that that regulates a person's internal clock based on light. ID2 can help with jet lag because the person with this gene is able to adjust to a new time zone faster than others. Overall there are many different explanations that can answer why someone wakes up a specific time every night. Some of which can be controlled by setting a regular sleep schedule and others can't.

2 comments:

  1. HI michelle! this was a good post. In my opinion, i think its cool to know what may affect a persons sleep schedule, it interests me to know how so many things can play a role in the way our body functions. The part i found the most interesting was the gene that revealed those who fly in different time zones often gain an advantage.

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  2. It extremely interesting to me to learn how my personal health can drastically affect my asleep. And I did not know there were that many genes in the body that correlated to sleep. It's also very interesting that there is a gene to help the body cope with a time zone change. I wonder since SIKI is the pathway to resetting an internal clock that if there will be treatments to target this gene in hopes of bettering a person sleep.

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