Gene discovered that predicts time of death
Researchers led by Dr. Andrew Lim, a neurologist at Sunnybrook and professor at University of Toronto, have discovered a gene that is associated with the timing of one's sleep-wake rhythm or cycle, as well as one's circadian rhythm of death.
This gene variant influences both the earliness or lateness of one's sleep and activity rhythms as well as the clock time of day one is likeliest to die.
This information could be potentially helpful for the scheduling or timing of work and even potentially the best times for an individual to receive medical care.
The study is published in the November 2012 issue of Annals of Neurology.
This is exciting because it is the first gene variant shown to be associated with the timing of directly recorded human sleep and activity rhythms and with time of death.