76 more gene regions found associated with sleep duration
A study led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the University of Exeter Medical School has identified another 76 gene regions associated with sleep duration. The study, by a team that recently reported finding gene sites associated with insomnia risk and chronotype (the tendency to be an early riser or a “night owl”), has been published in Nature Communications. “While we spend about a third of our life asleep, we have little knowledge of the specific genes and pathways that regulate the amount of sleep people get,” said Hassan Saeed Dashti of the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine, co-lead author of the report. “Our study suggests that many of the genes important for sleep in animal models may also influence sleep in humans, and opens the door to better understanding of the function and regulation of sleep.” It is understood that regularly getting adequate sleep — seven to eight hours per night — is important to health, and both...