Daytime sleepiness may be in your genes
23-01-2013
Since the mapping of the human genome scientists have been able to connect a wide array of human conditions to specific genes. In a recent discovery, scientists have found that certain people have a genetic disposition for feeling sleepy during the day and it is now up to them to use the information from the Human Genome Project to uncover the exact gene at the heart of the problem.
The researchers found that a lack of vitamin D has an inverse association with how sleepy people were during the day. However, it was the exact opposite amongst African-American participants, whose sleepiness decreased as their vitamin D levels dropped.
The connection between race and daytime drowsiness was a massive surprise for researchers as was the finding that African-Americans experience more daytime drowsiness than other races.
As this is a race based difference their only conclusion can be that there is a genetic difference and the race is now on to find exactly which gene is causing this.
The connection between vitamin D and tiredness has been known for a while but until this study was done scientists didn’t realise that people were genetically disposed to react in different ways to the levels of vitamin D and it is especially unusual for different racial groups to show completely opposite reactions to the amount of a vitamin
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