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Genetic Test Reveals Your Body Clock
Simple mouth swab can separate the larks from the owls
By Rob Quinn
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Posted Jun 7, 08 7:55 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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A simple mouth swab can tell scientists who's naturally meant to get up early and could forever free people who like a morning snooze from accusations of laziness, the Daily Telegraph reports. The newly developed test reveals the activity of the genes that regulate a person's body clock and identifies their natural sleeping and waking patterns.
Researchers say testing to tell if somebody is an early-rising "lark" or late-sleeping "owl" —or somewhere in between—could help prevent accidents caused by sleepy shift workers. Gaining information about a person's circadian rhythms could also help combat sleep disorders and make treatments such as chemotherapy, shown to work better at certain times of day, more effective.