Yeah... or, whatever...
Posted on 01/28/2008 7:17:35 PM PST by blam
Skin test shows if you're late or early riser
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 10:01pm GMT 28/01/2008
A simple skin test could reveal if someone who hates getting up is lazy, or whether their body clock is badly out of step with that of other people.
In recent years, scientists have found that genes can influence a person's preference for rising extremely early, when they are known as "a lark", or late in the day, "an owl".
Now a simple skin test to diagnose people with these genes has been devised which, in the longer term, could help develop new treatments.
The reason that we want to go to bed or get up is to be controlled by a central "circadian" clock, a part of the brain called the hypothalamus.
Today, a study confirms the emerging view that almost every cell in the body also contains a clock and, in particular, shows that skin cells can be tested to reveal if a person has a genetic propensity to like lie-ins, burn the midnight oil or get up at the crack of dawn.
Prof Steve Brown and his colleagues at the Chronobiology and Sleep Research Group, University of Zurich, found that the brain's hypothalamus acts as a central clock for the body, but does so by synchronising all the individual cells, which have their own clocks.
Skin cells are much easier clocks to study than the one in the brain and the team obtained the cells from 28 volunteers and inserted a gene that glowed into them creating biological clocks that waxed or waned in brightness over 24 hours.
The researchers determined that the skin cells from extreme early-risers had the shortest glowing periods, whereas those from very late-risers had the longest. They conclude in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their work could lead to a clinical screen to identify treatments for patients with extreme circadian rhythms.
"People know whether they are larks or owls," says Prof Brown. "The interesting part is that they are not all larks or owls for the same reason, and this research addresses the molecular cause of their early or late behaviour."
"What is really nice here is that by looking at clocks in peripheral tissues, we have for the first time been able to look, by proxy, at the molecular mechanisms in different human individuals that allow them to sense time in the brain. All in all, I find it quite incredible that skin cells can tell us something about a process as complex as human behaviour."
Once the cause of a sleep disorder has been accurately diagnosed, it is possible to test treatments on patients who all have the same underlying disfunction, a key step towards developing more effective treatments for body clock disorders.
i don’t think i need a skin test to answer this question.
“i don’t think i need a skin test to answer this question.”
I consider being awake at 9:00am early... And it’s not because my clock is out of whack, sadly.
isn’t it past your bedtime? ;)
I go to bed at 1:30 - 2:00 am, get up at 6:30 - 7:00am. Owl or Lark?
A better use would be to use the test in career counseling. It seems a little Orwellian to "treat" night owls.
Notice the point of the article was that they suspected there might be a genetic reason that some people are “aberrant” night owls, and perhaps medical treatment can now be developed to help turn these poor people into “normal” larks! Who’s to say what’s normal and what isn’t, especially now that many people work evenings and nights?
Neither. Just plain nuts. ;-)
Me, I fade rapidly toward the end of the day (usually I'm in bed by 10:30), and even on weekends I'm generally up by seven or so, depending on the time of year. Light makes a difference! Not sure if that's early enough to qualify as a lark.
My alarm clock goes off at 9:00 am, and if I didn’t have an alarm I’d keep sleeping.
In a 24-7 economy, being a night owl could be an advantage. you’re driven to be awake and functional when no one else is - which is key to improving productivity, by adding work time on projects that would otherwise be lost.
"Incredible" sounds about right.
Neither lark nor owl but a candle burning at both ends? :)
I’ve never needed much sleep. 4-6 hours a night usually does it for me.
Nah, just to busy to sleep :>)
I actually do not need any more than 4-6 hours, and more than 7 leaves me very groggy. I don’t nap, either.
Thanks for making me sound like I'm diseased. What in hell's name would the rest of you 'to bed with the chickens' people do without us natural night-shifters to keep you safe, secure, and medicated?
You want some bleary eyed cop or nurse, that has to awakened from their beauty sleep at 3 Am to take care of your emergency, because you "cured" us wide awake "it's noon, aren't you out of bed yet?" night owls?
And, yes, I got PLENTY of those snide calls on WORK days, from people who KNEW I got off at 7AM...and whom I would NEVER dream of calling at midnight!
*sigh* My skin and brain wake up at different times...
Yeah... or, whatever...
Oh that’s in the UK...
If it was close to CT I was gonna say sign me up.
If the person’s skin is horizontal at noon = Late Riser.
However, if they are still horizontal a week later, contact the CDC and the coroner.
I’m glad to have saved the government some money by precluding the need for this important study.
Any other questions?
Reminds me of a story. Worked the nite shift for 9 years, one of my coworkers had a spouse that repeatedly thought he should be up by 8 a.m. after getting off work about 5.
My coworker proceeded to call her one evening at break, about 3 a.m., and told her she’d had enough sleep and needed to get her a** out of bed and start getting the day’s chores done.
From then on she let him sleep as long as he wanted.
That is a great story!
Parents are harder to deal with.
Career counseling might indeed be a good idea.
In my career, I work freelance much of the time and for years have done my best work around 4 a.m. It’s tough to coordinate with others when working in an office setting.
The test might have a place in marriage/compatibility counseling too. My ex and I discovered early in our relationship that we liked to work the same strange hours. It was one of the “selling points” of the relationship.
Nuthatch.
<}B^)
I have to agree. Most of the time people who are early risers consider slow risers to have expressed some sort of moral failure. Course, if I can still be working strong at 11:00 pm, where others go to bed at 8:00, then I become a workaholic.
Sleeping in for me is any sleep after 5:00 am.
Maximum larkage in effect! I was up at 4am.
Are you a Lark or an Owl??
I think we are both LARKS!!
LARKS RULE!!
OWLS DROOL!!!
I consider 8 am in the morning MIDDAY!!
(usually I’m in bed by 10:30),
10:36:44 PM EST
Your running way late tonight. lol.
I’m on the west coast. ;-)
Gotta love those Larks!!!
Out with Fox and Hedgehog, in with Lark and Owl.
My guess is, Larks have a hypothalamus, while Owls have a hippothalamus.
I work second shift. I go to bed a 2:30 am ,get up at 7:30 am and go back to sleep at 8:30 am after the kid gets on the bus and then I sleep until 11:00 am.
Too true.
If I could I would go to bed about 4am and get up at noon.
My Mom thinks that’s an “alternative lifestyle”.
Bwhahahaha!!
At least you didn’t say a Blue Footed Booby :>)
Freak!!!! ;-)
Nope, just been this way all my life. I am now 53, and I look 35 according to almost everyone who knows me. Sleep has never been a priority to me. I can go 36 or more hours without sleep, grab 4 or 5 hours, and go again, no problem. Just the other day a friend was coming into town by air. She was late. Instead of arriving at 10:30pm she got in at 3:00 in the morning. I was still awake to go and pick her up, and still got up at 7:30.
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