The Genetics Behind Being a Night Owl

And How to Get a Better Night's Rest Because of It

May 27, 2009

Some people just enjoy being up late at night. Mostly thought of as a personal preference, there might be something a little bit more behind the nocturnal state.

Sleep is a must. Eight hours a night, seven days a week. That is the time when the body recuperates, digests food, and overall prepares itself for the next day. When hours are missed, or sleep isn't sound, it can severely disrupt how the body – and in turn, the day – functions. On this note, however, some people just love to stay up late. Whether it's the nightlife, or the calm of being the only one awake while everyone else in the house sleeps, some people just prefer the moon over the sun. Sometimes this can be a problem because the body gets more rest when sleep occurs when it is dark as the darkness stirs the body into producing melatonin (a hormone believed to cause a person to fall asleep faster and get a more rest). But, fear not night owls of the world, the urge to stay up late (and perhaps "sleep when you're dead") may have something to do with what is being called the "after hours gene".

Report Connecting Genetics and Being a Night Owl

In a report conducted by scientists from the Medical Research Council Mammalian Genetics Unit, Oxfordshire, England, the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and colleagues based at New York University published back in 2007, the reason some people become more active at night than they are during the day may have something to do with their genes. The After Hours Gene, or AFH, is a variant of a gene called FBXL3 (which is a strand of many genes that break proteins down in the body). This is what the researchers have identified as the culprit behind staying up late; this was found after observing mice and monitoring a few of them as they operated, not on the usual twenty-four hour cycle, but on a twenty-seven hour cycle.

The circadian rhythm is a cycle in the body that causes it to sleep during the night, and be awake and active during the day. This is the cycle that lasts about twenty-four hours. One of the key components of this process is a protein known as CRY (Cryptochromes). Further investigation into why not all the mice were functioning on the same cycle found that those that had a longer cycle had the strand of FBXL3; which meant that they possessed a slower breakdown of the CRY protein.

How to Get a Better Night's Rest

So now that it's understood that being a nocturnal person might be a little bit more than just preference, what's the best way to get a good night's restful sleep? Well, the best way is to find solutions for blocking out the light. This could mean purchasing thick drapes to cover the windows, or wearing a sleep mask. Another suggestion is to perhaps have darker colors in the bedroom. No, not deep reds and blacks to add even more to the vampiric nature of staying up late, but perhaps navy blues or forest greens. Purple or turquoise, even. Colors that reflect light, while perhaps appealing during the day, won't help anyone get a good night's (or day's) rest.

The copyright of the article The Genetics Behind Being a Night Owl in Genetic Theory is owned by Mary Faler. Permission to republish The Genetics Behind Being a Night Owl in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.