Hair Follicles Can Tell You Whether Or Not You're a 'Morning Person'.

The genes in our body that regulate whether we are or are not a morning person can be found in the cells of our hair follicles. A small part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus controls the internal clocks of humans and the RNA strands process these signals throughout the body in 24 hour cycles. Though these RNA strands can be found all throughout the body, the ones found in hair follicles are the easiest for scientists to work with. The leader of the study Makoto Akashi, of the Research Institute for Time Studies at Yamaguchi University in Japan, and his colleagues pulled hair from the heads of four different individuals, who had already described their preferred sleeping and eating schedule, among other things. The test occurred after the subjects had followed their preferred schedules for nine days, the ‘morning people’ woke up early every day, and the late sleepers woke up late. When researchers rested the genes of the subject, it was found that the ‘body clock gene’ activity was its highest after the subject woke, regardless of what time. This may be interpreted as the brain turning on the genes of the body at different times in different people. Other internal clock genes follow the same basic patterns, which makes it possible to calculate who the ‘morning people’ are, based just on their hair follicle cells.

This is relevant to biological concepts because it has to do with the biology of the human anatomy, foremost, the brain, which is obviously, a major part of the human anatomy. The fact that our body works in twenty four hour cycles, and that we all sub-routines within these cycles, also relates to biology, as well as the details relating to how our hair follicle cells can tell us whether or not we are ‘morning people’ or late sleepers.

We should care because now that we have the information necessary to find out what our internal body clocks are like, it should be utilized. Especially because disorders in our body clocks can lead to a higher risk in diabetes, high blood pressure, and in a smaller number of occasions, cancer. The study also suggested that workers who worked different hours, e.g. an earlier shift (6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) to a late shift (3:00 p.m. to midnight) didn’t have enough time in between to adjust their bodies to the different times, and work in a state of jet lag. These results could be used to create a better schedule for workers, so they might have a healthier work schedule.

Source: Kaufman, Rachel. “Your Hair Reveals Whether You Are A Morning Person.” National Geographic. August 23, 2010.


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