Or perhaps delayed sleep is a contained phase (college students have a tendency sleep in later than the adults they will grow up to become.)īut for individuals who "have a lifelong problem…something that persists and is seemingly hardwired into their biology" making adjustments is more difficult-but not impossible, says Young. Likely, part of the problem is tied to external, controllable factors, such as going to bed too late, or lying in the dark, staring at the glow from your smartphone. So what if you're a night owl living in a world designed for early mornings? Young's first suggestion is to figure out whether genetics are actually to blame (a CRY1 mutation can be determined by a spit test, as can other gene mutations linked to sleep disorders). Wrangling genetics into a livable schedule "You can imagine what that does to someone with a normal work schedule," says Young. and noon." She tested positive for the CRY1 gene mutation, an indication that her internal clock was delayed in comparison with the normal population. or 4 a.m.," with a "desired wakeup time between 10 a.m. In the Cell study, one of the participant's "habitual bedtime was at 3 a.m. But thanks to researchers like Young, we know that's not always the case-not every individual's circadian rhythm neatly aligns with external temperature and light cues. Messing with this cellular schedule-staring at a bright light right before bed, for example-can throw these synchronized clocks out of whack.Īs mentioned above, a disrupted cycle is often due to environmental factors, and can be cured with better sleep hygiene. "The energy moving through your body is quite rhythmic," says Young. Meanwhile, in the evening, your body temperature falls, and melatonin levels rise in anticipation of sleep. Enzymes are released in the morning to stimulate metabolism, in anticipation of breakfast. Our internal clocks work on a cellular level appetite, metabolism, and sleep, along with other bodily functions, are designed to align with daily and yearly shifts in brightness and heat.Ī standard circadian rhythm, then, essentially tracks the sun. Over the course of millions of years, our circadian rhythms "developed to anticipate these changes," says Young. We evolved on a planet governed by cyclical fluctuations in light and temperature. Our understanding is evolving there's still a lot we don't know.īelow, Young outlines some factors believed to play a large role in determining when, and how well, we sleep, along with strategies for adopting a more normal sleep-wake cycle-even when our genetics seem to be hardwired against it. While it's unclear the percentage of people with the mutation-it's likely far less than the percentage of people who identify as night owls, which suggests environmental factors are also at play-the study is a good reminder that sleep is complicated. or 3 a.m., and, if able, would sleep until 10 a.m. Their circadian cycle was delayed, meaning they had a difficult time falling asleep before 2 a.m. Those with either one or two copies of the variant CRY1 gene, it found, displayed a more than two-hour shift in night sleep times. Whereas in the past, being a "night owl" or a "morning lark" was attributed to vague mix of genetics and personal preferences, the study gets specific. For example, Young and a team of researchers recently published a paper in Cell that links delayed sleep phase disorder to a mutation in the CRY1 gene. It's a slow and imperfect process-we're (reassuringly) far more complex than either species-but we're gaining a better understanding of how our genes influence our sleep. By isolating the mutations responsible for changes in the circadian rhythm in flies and mice, researchers are beginning to identify corresponding genes in humans.
More specifically, we're starting to pinpoint why this cycle often gets disrupted. For one, we now know about circadian rhythm, or the body's internal clock, which dictates sleep-wake cycles. We still don't know exactly why we sleep, but in the intervening decades we've learned a lot about the underlying mechanisms. When he started his research, as a graduate student at the University of Texas in the early 1970s, the field was largely unformed.
Young has been studying sleep disorders for more than 45 years.
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