Genetic reason for morning people and night owls

Can your genes have an affect on whether a person enjoys waking up early or would rather hit the snooze button and go back to sleep?

People that claim themselves to be a morning person tend to find it easier to wake up early in the morning than people that claim they aren't morning people. Scientists have completed research that claims that this is based upon the genetics of individuals. There are over 300 genes that are associated with the way a person sleeps and is why some humans don't like waking up early in the morning.

By complying to our genetic bed time researchers found that people had improved mental health and productivity based on whether or not they went to bed 25 minutes earlier. The APH1A gene is associated with the circadian cycle of people but is mostly commonly known in Alzheimer's patients. This genes involvement in both Alzheimer's and sleep could be the reason why many patients with Alzheimers have trouble sleeping.

Genetic Codes of Morning People and Night Owls

This article from The New York Times discusses a new study that was published in Nature Communications, in which scientists tried to find genetic correlations between people who exhibited traits associated with being either a night owl or a morning person. Around 700,000 individuals had their genomes were analyzed. 351 different variations were then identified as being linked to the time in which someone prefers to go to sleep.It should be noted that there was no difference in the amount of time spent sleeping per night, but merely that "morning people" went to bed at an earlier time and "night owls" went to bed at a later time.

As a self proclaimed "night owl", I think this study was really cool. I've always been interested in how much of our genetic makeup is responsible for the type of person that we are. It brings back in to light the old "Nature vs Nurture" debate, in which we are constantly questioning whether people are who they are by influence of genes (nature) or how they were raised (nurture). I've always believed it was an equal mixture between the two, but as I get older the more I start to feel that nature is a larger contributor than nurture is in terms of personality development. Articles such as this, that show that even a preference for sleep time can be linked to genetic variations just helps support my argument that much more.

-Erica Midili

Night Owl Gene

The article "Study Finds 'Night Owl' Gene Variant" discusses the mutation of the gene CRY1, that results in people with longer circadian rhythms. People with longer circadian rhythms stay up longer at night and are also known as "night owls." The mutation of the CRY1 gene slows down a persons internal clock which causes trouble falling asleep. An experiment done by Young and Alina Patke, examined peoples circadian rhythms. They isolated them from signs of night and day and allowed them to sleep and eat when they pleased for two weeks. The study showed that most people had a normal sleep cycle, however the people with delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD) not only stayed up longer but had a cycle that was 30 minutes longer. When further examining DSPD, one of their patients was producing the CRY1 protein more than normal, slowing down the internal clock. After this was found the patients family was also tested. Five people in the patients family had the same mutated gene. According to their research 1 in 75 people have the mutated CRY1 gene. All in all, studies are further being conducted to focus on this mutation.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chronotype-quiz-morning-person-or-night-owl-2017-3

https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/04/study-finds-night-owl-gene-varia

I Can’t Help It, It’s In My Genes

As the old saying goes, “The early bird catches the worm.” However, some people, maybe even yourself, feel best staying up late and sleeping in vs getting up at the crack of dawn. According to a recent study published in Nature Communications, a human’s preference for early mornings or late nights might come down to the individuals genes.

This study, which was commissioned by 23andMe, utilized their massive genetic database to analyze DNA from more than 89,000 people. In addition to sending in their spit, participants of this study also answered a two-part online survey, which categorized them as morning or evening people based off their self-reporting answers. From the participants’ profiles, researchers of this study were able to make some conclusions on what they believed were characteristics that most likely lead to being a morning person. These were being a female, being over 60yrs old, having a healthy BMI, not suffering from insomnia, and being able to feel well-rested off less than 8hrs of sleep.

This study initially generated a lot of excitement because the conclusions had been drawn from a large number of humans, making the results more robust and significant. However, the population used was only European descent, which itself paints a skewed picture. In addition, self-reporting from the patients was used as well, which is notoriously known for inaccurate numbers. Regardless, the spots identified on the genome by researchers will prove to be useful for future studies.

This article was interesting because it covered a topic that is near and dear to many college students; why is it so hard to get up for 8:00am classes? It is funny to find out that it may be because of our genes. Besides when I stay up really late, I am definitely a morning person, which both my mother & father 100% are. However, since there were flawed components to the study, there is definitely room for improvement. I look forward to when scientists smooth out the bumps.

http://www.popsci.com/not-an-early-bird-blame-it-on-your-genes
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160202/ncomms10448/full/ncomms10448.html#affil-auth