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The alarm is set for the morning, your head touches the pillow, and the events of the day become a distant memory as you sink into a state of relaxation and, eventually, sleep. Ironically, as you lay and physically do nothing for on average eight hours per night, your body is extremely awake, conducting a series of biological processes that aim to restore and rejuvenate, repair tissue, synthesize hormones and grow muscle.



The National Sleep Foundation advises 7-9 hours of sleep per night for adults, 11-14 hours for young children, and between 8 and 10 hours for teenagers. Sleep is integral for cognitive processes such as processing and storing memories and contributing to positive mental health; the Dalai Lama himself claims that “sleep is the best meditation”. It’s of great concern, therefore, that 35.3% adults report having less than 7 hours of sleep during a typical 24-hour period. Ironically, despite spending an average 25 years of our lifetime asleep, our knowledge of why we sleep, and the purpose of sleep, is surprisingly limited. Increasing research is exploring the genetic and molecular forces driving the need for sleep and the effects of poor sleep, with some interesting findings that may have clinical implications.





Genetic influences on sleep duration

Sleeping is healing

Sleeping isn’t cheating, and lack of sleep may cause DNA damage

10 tips on how to fall asleep fast



1. Harbison, S., Serrano Negron, Y., Hansen, N. and Lobell, A. (2017). Selection for long and short sleep duration in Drosophila melanogaster reveals the complex genetic network underlying natural variation in sleep. PLOS Genetics, 13(12), p.e1007098.



2. Nilsson, E., Boström, A., Mwinyi, J. and Schiöth, H. (2016). Epigenomics of Total Acute Sleep Deprivation in Relation to Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiles and RNA Expression. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 20(6), pp.334-342.



3. Dashti, H., Jones, S., Wood, A., Lane, J., van Hees, V., Wang, H., Rhodes, J., Song, Y., Patel, K., Anderson, S., Beaumont, R., Bechtold, D., Bowden, J., Cade, B., Garaulet, M., Kyle, S., Little, M., Loudon, A., Luik, A., Scheer, F., Spiegelhalder, K., Tyrrell, J., Gottlieb, D., Tiemeier, H., Ray, D., Purcell, S., Frayling, T., Redline, S., Lawlor, D., Rutter, M., Weedon, M. and Saxena, R. (2019). Genome-wide association study identifies genetic loci for self-reported habitual sleep duration supported by accelerometer-derived estimates. Nature Communications, 10(1).



4. Toda, H., Williams, J., Gulledge, M. and Sehgal, A. (2019). A sleep-inducing gene, nemuri, links sleep and immune function in Drosophila. Science, 363(6426), pp.509-515.



5. Cheung, V., Yuen, V., Wong, G. and Choi, S. (2018). The effect of sleep deprivation and disruption on DNA damage and health of doctors. Anaesthesia, 74(4), pp.434-440.

