Blood Tests Reveal Time of Your Internal Clock

Are you a night owl? Are you a morning lark? Well, being either of these actually has little to do with personal preference and more to do with your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock cycle, which makes you feel sleepy at night and energized during the day. This clock cycle is essential to your daily functioning, but finding out what exact time it is in your body can prove difficult.

Fortunately, a group of scientists has found a way to use artificial intelligence and complex algorithms to measure a person’s psychological, internal clock time. This emerging technology is called TimeSignature and takes two blood samples to test your genetics. The scientists examined 20,000 genes and found that 40 of them were more likely to turn on at certain times of the day.

Currently, this technology has not been tested outside of labs, but if all goes well, TimeSignature could soon be more widely used. The test could tell us if, for example, our bodies feel as if the time is 6 a.m. when in reality, the time of the outside world is 8 a.m.

Understanding your circadian rhythm is very important. Your circadian rhythm tells you when you feel tired, but it also controls various aspects of your body. From digestion to blood pressure to body temperature, there are many vital components working together in our bodies that we need to keep in good health.

Another important understanding for all of us is the misalignment between your internal clock and the real time. Early mornings are often very tiring, but this could sometimes also be symptoms of more serious problems such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Another disorder associated with your body’s circadian rhythm is delayed sleep phase disorder, which affects around 7-17% of the population. Either way, understanding the underlying issues could lead to predictions and treatments associated with circadian rhythm disruption.