Whether we tend to stay up late or wake up just at dawn depends largely on the genetic makeup of our circadian rhythm, that is, the internal mechanism that regulates sleep and wake cycles. This was confirmed by scientists from the University of Leicester, in the United Kingdom, who at the beginning of 2015 identified up to eighty different genes that determine if we have an owl chronotype , that is, that we are night owls; or lark – early risers.
In principle, this difference should not be a problem. The difficulties appear because ” the rhythm of life is marked to us from outside , and for many people the call to start the day occurs several hours before their internal clock announces that the time to wake up has arrived,” he explains in Frontiers in Neurology They were Tauber, a co-author of the research. And that makes people who are at full throttle late in the morning to spend much of their mornings mired in lethargy.
But in addition to genetics and work schedules, this personal cycle is very sensitive to three factors.
1. Winter / summer time change
German scientists have shown that the biological clock of owl people is stuck in winter time , while that of real life is ahead. And that implies that the imbalance is drastically accentuated, with the consequences that it entails for health.
2. Consume a lot of alcohol
A study from the University of Alabama, in the USA, revealed that alcoholism alters the circadian rhythm of the liver . This addiction causes the cycle of cytochrome c oxidase to be lost, a key enzyme in the mitochondria that allows the liver to adapt to metabolic demands. Without it, this diseased gland.
3. Eat fat
Scientists at Northwestern University, in the USA, have shown that eating hypercaloric foods causes weight gain and at the same time disrupts the circadian rhythm . It is the whiting that bites its tail: this causes the intake to increase during the time that it should be asleep or resting, thus increasing the risk of obesity.
