Do your sheets stick and you have a terrible time opening your eyes every morning? A group of American researchers from Northwestern University could have identified the gene that, when absent, makes it so difficult for some people to leave sleep behind when they wake up .
As Ravi Allada and his colleagues explained in an article published in the journal Nature , the CG4857 gene , nicknamed "twenty-four" and identified in fruit flies ( Drosophila melanogaster), alters the production of a protein called PER. When it is not present, it causes the flies to not have a regular cycle and to have difficulties reacting just before dawn, which in theory would be similar to what happens to humans.
On the other hand, working with a thousand flies with the overexpressed gene, they detected that their daily cycle lasted to 26 hours , instead of 24, which suggests that the gene could be involved and influence the biological clock of insects. "The function of the biological clock is to tell your system to be ready, that the sun is rising and that it is time to get up," explains Allada.
