Hot on the heels of yesterday's post about how a woman's circadian rhythm can affect her sleep, I've just found out about a new study that found mutating one amino acid in a single protein changed the circadian rhythm of the common fruit fly.
By mutating the amino acid, researchers were able to change the speed of the internal clocks of the flies to make them think there were 16 hours in a day rather than 24.
If this research can be applied to humans it could help those suffering from circadian rhythm sleep disorders such as delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Let's hope we see more research in this area.
Source: Cell
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Last updated: February 24, 2014
