Count “gene mutation” among the reasons to get at least eight hours of shut-eye every night.
A new study from researchers in the U.K. found that getting less than six hours of sleep per night for a consecutive week causes negative “gene expression in human blood cells, reduces the amplitude of circadian rhythms in gene expression and intensifies the effects of subsequent acute total sleep loss on gene expression.”
The researchers studied 26 participants who were given one week of insufficient sleep (5.7 hours) and one week of sufficient sleep (8.5 hours) in a controlled environment.
The researchers tested 10 whole-blood samples of RNA from each participant directly after the fact, all while monitoring for “light, activity, and food.” When they tested the RNA samples, “711 genes were up- or down-regulated by insufficient sleep,” which caused the “number of genes that responded to subsequent total sleep deprivation” to increase by more than 700 percent.
Genes relating to the circadian rhythm, i.e. the biological clock, and the subject’s metabolisms were negatively impacted, as were the immune and stress responses regarding the biological processes.
More than one-third of Americans receive seven or fewer hours of sleep per night on a regular basis, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Clearly sleep is critical to rebuilding the body and maintaining a functional state, all kinds of damage appear to occur,” Colin Smith, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Surrey, told the BBC. “If we can’t actually replenish and replace new cells, then that’s going to lead to degenerative diseases.”
This is another study that proves doctors have apparently been correct all these years when they warn that not getting enough sleep can prove harmful to the way your body operates.
