Night Owls Research Study

Sleeping in is in the genes

published in the Fredericksburg, VA Free Lance-Star

(link to original article)

By EDIE GROSS

Date published: 11/7/2004

NOT LONG after my little brother was born in March 1975, my mother brought His Chubbiness to the pediatrician.

"There's something wrong with him," she told the doctor. "He wakes up ridiculously early. Every morning, he's screaming at 7 o'clock. My daughter always slept until 10."

The doctor chided my mother.

"Nothing," he said, "is wrong with your son. Your daughter's the one who's not normal."

Now I'd like to point out that my brother, not I, was the one who, two years later, would shove a raisin up his nose. Nevertheless, at the tender age of 3, I was branded abnormal--simply because I slept in.

My future, bleak and unfulfilled, flashed before me:

I would always sleep through first period. And sometimes second.

I would never be the first one in line at Wal-Mart's Day After Thanksgiving Sale.

I would never take advantage of 4 p.m. early- bird dinner specials, because everyone knows those are only for people who've been up since 5 a.m.

I began to drink--mostly caffeinated sodas--so I could stay awake, but I was drinking just the same.

As a night owl trapped in an early-bird world, I grew resentful of "morning people," those excessively perky types who would bound out of bed in the morning, paint the house, bake a pie or two and reupholster the furniture, all before heading off to work at 6:30 a.m.

As it turns out, there's a scientific reason for their insanely sunny dispositions--and my lack thereof--at that hour of the morning.

A host of studies at institutions like Stanford, Northwestern and the University of California indicate that the propensity to sleep in stems not from laziness or sloth, but rather from genetic makeup.

"It's completely normal," Kathryn Reid, a research assistant professor at the Northwestern University Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, said of my tendency to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. "There's a genetic component, like being tall or short."

Much of the work has focused on the aptly named "clock" genes, which influence a person's sleeping patterns.

According to those studies, the clock genes of late sleepers like myself exhibit a different pattern from those of early birds, or "larks" as they're known in the scientific community.

In some instances, a person's sleep preference appears to be inherited. If either parent possesses the gene mutation linked to sleeping late, it can be passed down to a child, said Daniel Kripke, a research psychiatry professor at the University of California, San Diego.

But the gene doesn't always require a family connection. Two late-sleepers could also raise an early-riser--though I pray no child of mine ever gets up before the sun.

Though researchers have studied circadian rhythms--basically the body's internal clock--for decades, work on the clock genes is relatively new.

Researchers at Northwestern discovered the genes in mice in 1997. Further study of human genes has paved the way for long-persecuted night owls to shake off the social stigma often tied to sleeping late.

"There are not just blonds and brunets. There are people with all kinds of different shades of hair color in between," said Kripke. "Similarly, there are people with every shade of lark and owl. There's no sharp line that divides what's normal and what's abnormal."

Like anything else in genetics, there are extremes. For some, getting to bed at a decent hour and waking at a socially acceptable one are nearly impossible.

"If you work in a profession where it's OK to be at work by 10 [a.m.], you're fine," Kripke said. "If you work in a profession where you have to be at work by 6 [a.m.], you've got a disabling handicap."

Those who participate in the sleep studies often fill out a "morningness-eveningness questionnaire." By pinpointing when a person feels ready to wake up, do his best work, and go to bed, the questionnaire helps define who is a lark and who is an owl.

Researchers also take a blood sample to see if the person's sleep preference, as indicated on that survey, is apparent in the genes.

"The new genetic technology, it goes a long way toward explaining things we could never understand," Kripke said. "It might be that in five years, we'd be able to do a blood test and tell people whether they have a genetic susceptibility to being a night owl and whether treatments would be helpful."

In spite of the pediatrician's early assessment of me, my own sleep issues can hardly be classified as a disorder.

Though I'm never the first one at the office, I manage to get up in the morning.

Most days, two alarm clocks, a hungry cat with sharp claws and a dog with a small bladder do the trick.

On mornings when I have to get up especially early, my long-suffering mother, who lives in Florida and is up every day by 5:30 a.m., calls to wake me.

(Stop snickering. It's not as if every other 32-year-old woman doesn't do the same thing.)

Professional help is available for those whose mothers can't--or won't--wake them up regularly for school or work.

Light therapy is one of the more popular treatments, say Kripke and Reid.

A patient who has trouble getting up early should expose himself to bright light for about an hour or two each morning, either direct sunlight or, in many cases, a light box similar to those used by people with seasonal affective disorder.

The bright light essentially resets the body's internal clock, making the person rise earlier than he otherwise would.

Patients have success with the light therapy, but they have to stick with it every day, sort of like constantly winding an old wristwatch to keep it on schedule, said Kripke.

And rising earlier means going to bed earlier, which is hard for some to swallow, he said.

"They may want to get up early, but they don't want to give up 'The Late Show' or the 1 a.m. chat room," he said.

I'm afraid I fall into that category.

I like to know how "Law & Order" ends. I love to watch Dave Letterman's monologue.

And I prefer to read for a half-hour or so before falling asleep sometime after midnight.

So for now, if I happen to catch a sunrise, it's only because I haven't been to bed yet.

To reach EDIE GROSS: 540/374-5428 egross@freelancestar.com

Date published: 11/7/2004

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