I, Myself and Me.

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Clock Gene

@ 07:05

Credits: xxx

How I hope I could say that to myself.

Recently I came across this article about sleep so I thought I should talk about this a little more.

A little about my own sleep cycle, I've probably said this before (I'm not very sure) but I'm nocturnal and just so you know I'm blogging at 6am in the morning not because I just woke up but because I haven't gone to sleep yet. Anyway, I don't have a very healthy lifestyle because I sleep more than 8 hours a day, which is not efficient and I end up being very tired for the entire day.

So, back to the article, it is actually about people who can stay awake for an unnatural amount of time before needing to sleep and on top of that, needing very little amount of sleep or none at all.

Apparently there's a gene which scientist call "Period 3" or "Clock Gene" that is responsible for needing less sleep. (Oh man, how I hope I have this gene..) Most of us probably needs an average of 8 hours of sleep per day while people with Period 3 need as little as 4 hours per day to feel fresh and energetic for the rest of the day.

Our perception of how rested we are, affects how we feel during the day.

On the other hand, there was an interesting study in Berkeley that measures how much sleep a group of insomniacs actually got as compared to what they think they actually had. Surprisingly, the result of the study shows that these insomniacs only receive about on average 35 minutes less sleep than those who had no trouble sleeping, yet when they were asked how long have they (thought to have) slept, the answer was 2-3 hours. After they were told the actual amount of sleep they actually had, amazingly many of the symptoms of sleep depravation disappeared.
So, in many ways, our perception of how rested we are, affects how we feel during the day.

For those who are not lucky enough to have the exclusive clock gene (including myself), you would probably be surviving the night by dosing on energy drinks like Redbull and Coffee. But of course, the medical industries are not just idling around, there's a drug, Modafinil, which mimics the effect of Clock Gene and allow the user to sleep for just 4-5 hours before waking up feeling refreshed. Another new drug that is currently being tested, CX717, is said to allow user to stay awake for 36 hours or more without having side effects like caffeine.

Personally, I'm not very supportive of such drugs though, but I am very much addicted to caffeine. If normal people were to go 36 hours without sleep, even if there are no side effects similar to caffeine, it's probably going to spoil our liver since our liver is also working 36 hours without rest. I'm sure many of you have heard that our liver's repair time is effective from 11pm to 3am, letting your liver work instead of rest during that time for a prolonged period will definitely cause some negative effects on your liver and body. So I suggest, to those who are on such drugs, to consume only when necessary.

I should go to sleep soon and rest my mind and body.

Goodnight.

A Little About Me

Simple Profile

Hello! My name is Lynette.
This blog came about out of pure boredom, however, I will now make good use of this blog since i decided to create it.

I am currently a full-time student majoring in Mathematical Science. I took up this course because Maths is my best subject and interest.

I am also a part-time cheerleader. I don't mean holding pompoms though.

Not sure what else comes under this section but if you're curious about anything, feel free to let me know and I'll consider having it in this section or maybe blog about it.

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