We all have our natural 24 hour rhythms of which there are three basic kinds. Some of us like to get up before the newspaper lands on the porch, others think it’s dreadful to be up and about before brunch. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle.
While the environment (i.e. when the sun rises or sets) plays a huge role on our circadian clocks, scientists have discovered that there is a genetic component to which cycle you tend to fall in.
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center isolated a single nucleotide which seems to effect your sleeping and waking pattern. A-A genotype (36%) is for early risers, A-G (48%) for the “middle” risers and G-G (16%) for late risers.
This new data is helpful in fighting diseases which seem to respond to our circadian cycles. It can also help us plan our lives around the hours we are most effective. But there is one added bonus data tidbit – it can predict the hour of our death.
The research published by first author Andrew Lim in the journal Annals of Neurology, confirms a genetic variant that helps determine the time of day a person is most likely to die — a gene that predicts time of death. People with the A-A and A-G died before 11am and the late risers, G-G genotypes, died just before 6pm.
While there might be a gene that predicts the time of day you’ll die, fortunately the research is still inconclusive as to the actual date.
The Cureus Blog 