New blood test can tell if you're naturally a night owl or an early bird
Getting a good night's sleep just took on a whole new meaning.
- A new study introduces a new method for determining your personal circadian rhythm.
- This could have profound effects on combating cognitive disorders and helping patients understand when to take medicine.
- The blood test measures a person's biological clock to within 1.5 hours.
Photo: Yuris Alhumaydy / Unsplash
<p>The human circadian rhythm approximates with the rising and setting of the sun, though that's not the final word in this story. Before electric lights we slept in <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again" target="_blank">two shifts</a> — still within the timeframe of the rotation of the planet, however. As Daniel Pink writes in <em>When</em>, his book on timing, there is individual variation in this rhythm: 14 percent of humans are what he terms "larks" and 21 percent "night owls," while the majority are "third birds," meaning their midpoint of sleep is between 3–4 am.</p><p>How do you know what feathered vertebrate you are? It turns out your blood can tell you. A new test called TimeSignature, announced in a <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/09/05/1800314115" target="_blank">study</a> published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, requires only two blood draws to inform you what your genes say about your circadian rhythms. </p><p>This follows previous, expensive tests requiring numerous blood draws at specific times of the day. TimeSignature measures forty different gene expression markers that signal when you should be sleeping. Though variation might exist dependent upon scheduling — I remember gruelingly working overnight shifts in the emergency room back in college — your genetic make-up doesn't lie. </p><p>Now we can pinpoint the hours we should be unconscious with previously unavailable precision. <a href="https://www.futurity.org/circadian-rhythm-blood-test-1865492-2/" target="_blank">According to</a> Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine assistant professor (and lead author of the study), Rosemary Braun,</p><blockquote>This is a much more precise and sophisticated measurement than identifying whether you are a morning lark or a night owl. We can assess a person's biological clock to within 1.5 hours.</blockquote>Want to fall asleep faster? Try this 5-minute technique
Before you reach for another glass of warm milk, read this.
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