If you can’t stand people who greet the day at 5AM with a smile and a song, then there’s hope for you on Mars–if we ever get around to colonizing it.

According to researchers out of Manchester University, individuals with short-running body clocks (circadian rhythms), also known as “extreme morning types”, will struggle to live on Mars due to its day lasting 37 minutes longer than Earth’s.

“The rotation speed of Mars may be within the limits of some people’s internal clock,” said lead author Andrew Loudon, “but people with short running clocks, such as extreme morning types, are likely to face serious intractable long-term problems, and would perhaps be excluded from any plans NASA has to send humans to Mars.”

He adds that those with longer running body clocks would probably be better suited for habitation on Mars.

The study to back it up

How Loudon and researchers from Holland and Germany came to these conclusions is actually pretty interesting. Using a gene that alters circadian rhythms from 24 hours to 20 hours, they released two groups of mice–some with the 24-hour gene and some with the 20-hour gene–into outdoor pens (naturally lit conditions), with free access to food, and kept an eye on how the gene pool changed.

What the found was that the frequency of mice with the faster circadian rhythm gene slowly diminished over time until the population was dominated by those with normal, 24-hour body clocks.

“A correctly ticking body clock is essential for normal survival in the wild, and this has to be in phase with the rotation speed of the Earth,” said Loudon. “Animals with clocks that do not run in synchrony with Earth are selected against. Thus, the body clock has evolved as an essential survival component for life on Earth.”

How this will actually shake out on Mars, we’re still not sure. We still have to get there, first.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

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