Nite-Owls: Blame your genes not the boogie

by Victoria Revay | April 27, 2007 at 09:05 am

680 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Not an early riser? Would you rather stay up late then go to bed early? [I would.] Well, then you might have the "after-hours" gene and that means you really can't do anything about it.

After testing their theory on mice, scientists concluded that the mice that had the variant gene, which is called "after-hours" or Afh, had internal body clocks that worked on a 27 hour cycle instead of a 24 hour one [yippee!] Scientists in England just made the discovery as until now this gene was not linked to the body clock that keeps metabolism and digestion in tune with the rising and setting of the sun. Neato.

The altered gene, named "after hours" or Afh, is a variant of a gene called Fbxl3, which had not been linked to the body clock that keeps our metabolism, digestion and sleep patterns in tune with the rising and setting of the sun.