#Late night screen time with depression drivers#

Sleep apnea - in which a person's airway closes during sleep - is as prevalent in the United States as mental illness, affecting millions of people. Scientists are looking for genetic signatures in other sleep disorders, such as insomnia and narcolepsy, which all together affect an estimated 50 million to 70 million Americans. We want to keep screening people to see what makes people tick,' Patke said.

If you understand the mechanism, you can maybe start interfering with it to direct it in the direction we want.

'CRY1 is definitely one, but there will be others. 'We are looking for other genetic features' in DPSD, she said. She fits the bill, however, and thinks she may yet have a sleep disorder that one day will be linked to specific genes. Patke is herself a night owl and tested her own DNA for the presence of the mutated gene - she doesn't have it. But Patke also stresses that even without a CRY1 mutation it is possible to have a sleep disorder, including DSPD. Patke said that her lab does not do that sort of testing (they have had inquiries) and it would in fact be illegal to do so without the necessary licensure for commercial testing.Ĭommercial mail-in DNA testing service 23andMe doesn't currently screen for this particular genetic variation, so it won't show up in their results. Outside of good sleep hygiene, including turning off screens before bed, there aren't many treatment options for DSPD, although scientists are beginning to explore novel treatments targeting the biological clock for sleep disorders, and related health conditions.įor those interested in whether they have a dominant night owl gene, short of going to a private lab there is no way to test for it currently. 'That would be bad for anybody, but especially someone who has DSPD.'

'Somebody might have a natural disposition to be up late that can be aggravated if that person sits in front of a bright computer screen till two am,' Patke said. Patke's research established the genetic condition, but screen time in bed and other visual stimulants 'can definitely make it worse,' she said.ĬRY1 is not affected by light exposure in humans - night owls will be night owls - but late-night screens can exacerbate the condition. 'People who have this preferred late chronotype, this night owl behavior,' tend to score higher on measures of depression and are also more likely to suffer from other serious conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. 'There definitely are correlations between this late sleep pattern and a variety of secondary diseases, not all of which we understand,' said Alina Patke, a research associate at Rockefeller University and the lead author on the night owl study conducted at Young's lab.

#Late night screen time with depression drivers#

adults do not get a restorative sleep at night workplace injuries and decreased productivity resulting from sleep deprivation are estimated to cost the United States billions annually and tired drivers cause 20 percent of all car crashes, more than 1 million crashes a year. The Nobel Prize, and continuing research, highlight how far sleep research has come: For many decades it had been neglected by the medical community, even though sleep, especially lack of it, can contribute to disease and cost society billions of dollars, a recent New Yorker magazine piece noted. Forty-seven million U.S. Whereas people with typical sleep tend to fall asleep around midnight and wake around seven or eight in the morning, people with DSPD typically fall asleep three to four hours later and wake up around 11 a.m. A mutation in CRY1 makes our internal clock run slower, contributing to delayed sleep phase disorder, according to the research.