Some people, even on weekends, jump out of bed early in the morning and feel cheerful, although they have only slept for a couple of hours. Others need to soak up the bed for half an hour, after which they hardly crawl off it and cannot recover for a long time. Now those who are called sleepyheads, or "owls," have an excuse: a certain gene recently discovered by scientists makes them sleep longer
A research team consisting of experts from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Munich found that one in five Europeans undergoes a change in the structure of their DNA. A special gene was named ABCC9. It is involved in controlling energy levels in the cells of the body and directly affects the number of hours it takes to get enough sleep.
More than ten thousand volunteers from all over Europe, from the Orkney Islands in Scotland to Croatia in the south and Estonia in the east, took part in a large-scale experiment. They were asked how many hours they sleep on weekends. The researchers were interested in precisely those days when you do not need to run to work or sleep off after or before the night shift. This ensured the purity of the experiment. Therefore, they asked to give up sleeping pills for a while. In addition, blood was taken from all participants for DNA analysis.
When scientists compared the results of the polls with the data of analyzes, they could not fail to notice a clear pattern. Those people who were found to have ABCC9 slept, on average, 30 minutes longer than the normal eight hours of sleep.
The researchers confirmed their findings when they conducted a controlled study of fruit flies that have the exact same gene. Individuals without ABCC9 slept three hours less than usual.
“Sleep takes up about one third of a person's entire life. However, people often have to sleep more or less than the required number of hours in spite of the needs of the body, - stated Dr. Jim Wilson, one of the authors of the study.
His colleague Neil Stanley noted that ABCC9 is not the only gene that regulates sleep. There is, for example, its antagonist who, on the contrary, makes people sleep less than usual. Doctors from the University of Wisconsin even jokingly christened him "Thatcher Gene" in honor of the former British Prime Minister. She slept four hours a day and felt great.
These data are confirmed by research by experts from the University of California and the Howard Hughes Institute, who claim that the "larks" have a gene that produces the protein CKIdelta. He, according to the researchers, and causes "hereditary extended sleep phase syndrome." People susceptible to it never wake up at the beginning of the working day, because they get up at dawn or even before dawn.
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Having studied the genetic structure of the brain of "owls", scientists have found a specific gene, which is codenamed hPer2. It has the opposite effect.
