A new test which can detect if you are sleep deprived

A team of researchers has developed a blood test which could easily examine whether you have skipped a night's sleep.

By: Sudhakar Jha | | Published: September 26, 2018 10:14 pm

A team of researchers has developed a blood test to examine whether you have skipped a night's sleep © Shutterstock

A simple blood test is what it will take to know if you are sleep deprived. These are good times to live, right? Damn it is! Also Read - test featured image size 11

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A research team, bothered about the hazards of drowsy driving, which is dangerous for both the drivers and the other people on road, has developed a blood test to examine whether you have skipped a night’s sleep. Also Read - Here’s what happens when you don't get enough sleep every night

During this study from the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey, 36 participants skipped one night of sleep. During the 40-hour period of sleep deprivation, the team took blood samples of the individuals and noted the changes in the expression levels of thousands of genes.

The team then put the samples through a machine learning algorithm which identified a subset of 68 genes with 92 per cent accuracy to detect whether the samples was from a sleep-deprived or well-rested individual.

Previous research in the same regard from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety had shown that drivers who get just one to two hours less than the recommended daily allowance in a 24-hour period nearly double their risk of a car crash.

“Identifying these biomarkers is the first step to developing a test which can accurately calculate how much sleep an individual has had. The very existence of such biomarkers in the blood after only a period of 24-hour wakefulness shows the physiological impact a lack of sleep can have on our body,” said author Simon Archer in the paper.

Study lead author Derk-Jan Dijk in the research published in the journal Sleep, added, “This is a test for acute total sleep loss; the next step is to identify biomarkers for chronic insufficient sleep, which we know to be associated with adverse health outcomes.”

Published : September 26, 2018 10:14 pm

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