Human genetics and sleep behavior.
Why we sleep remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. In the past few years, great advances have been made to better understand this phenomenon. Human genetics has contributed significantly to this movement, as many features of sleep have been found to be heritable. Discoveries about these genetic variations that affect human sleep will aid us in understanding the underlying mechanism of sleep. Here we summarize recent discoveries about the genetic variations affecting the timing of sleep, duration of sleep and EEG patterns. To conclude, we also discuss some of the sleep-related neurological disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and the potential challenges and future directions of human genetics in sleep research.
Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Weill Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States.
Guangsen
G
Shi
Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Weill Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States.
David
D
Wu
Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Weill Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States.
Louis J
LJ
Ptáček
Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Weill Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States. Electronic address: ying-hui.fu@ucsf.edu.
Ying-Hui
YH
Fu
D004569:Electroencephalography; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D012890:Sleep / Q000235:genetics*; D013995:Time