Why this topic Everyone is wearing a sleep tracker and arguing with it.
In the news
2026-04-01 · Portas L, et al., Nature Communications 2026, PMID:41922918
Genetic architecture of sleep in a genome wide association study of device measured sleep traits
Most sleep genetics rests on what people report about their own sleep. This study measured it instead: sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and accelerometer-derived REM and non-REM sleep in 80,013 UK Biobank participants. It found 20 loci, 12 of them not reported before, including genome-wide significant associations for REM and non-REM sleep duration. MEIS1 showed strong opposing effects on REM and non-REM duration. Analysing women and men separately found distinct loci — FOXP2 and NRXN3 in women; LRP1B, NPBWR2 and PABPC4 in men — and Mendelian randomisation supported a link between shorter sleep and higher cardiometabolic risk. The study's MEIS1 position is not in this catalogue; four of its other positions are, including rs2006810 (AUTS2, sleep efficiency) and rs62033400 (FTO, REM sleep duration), which is filed here under body mass index. PMID:41922918.
2026-05-22 · Sinnott-Armstrong N, et al., Nature Communications 2026, PMID:42173832
Genetic variants affect diurnal glucose levels throughout the day
Using the time of day each blood sample was taken in about 420,000 UK Biobank participants, with replication in four other biobanks, the study shows glucose levels are under diurnal genetic control. The two robust time-dependent signals are at MTNR1B, the melatonin receptor, and CRY2, a core clock gene; both independently change type 2 diabetes risk. Those two positions are not on this site yet; 21 others from the study are, including rs560887 (G6PC2) and rs34872471 (TCF7L2).
2026-01-01 · Sleep 2026, PMID:41065713
Insomnia Shares Genetic Risk Loci With Seven Psychiatric Disorders, Largest Study Yet Finds
Genome-wide data from over 314,000 insomnia cases and up to 449,855 cases across 12 psychiatric conditions found significant genetic correlations between insomnia and seven disorders -- ADHD, anorexia nervosa, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia -- and 70 shared genomic loci, many novel, converging on GABAergic synapse signaling. This site's own insomnia page covers the underlying genetics in more depth.
From our blog
What this topic connects to
Solid lines are connections this site curates. Dashed lines mean the two ends share a research paper — worth knowing, and not a claim that one explains the other.
Variants that share a paper with this
Counted in Europe PMC, where the title or abstract names both this topic and that rsID. The number is papers, not evidence of a cause.
rs429358
APOE
Lewy body disease
9 papers →rs6265
BDNF
Smoking behavior
8 papers →rs9939609
FTO
Menarche (age at onset)
7 papers →rs1421085
FTO
Obesity
5 papers →rs11676272
ADCY3
Body mass index
3 papers →rs1801133
MTHFR
Folate metabolism (MTHFR C677T)
3 papers →rs579459
ABO
Soluble E-selectin levels
3 papers →rs671
ALDH2
Alcohol flush reaction
3 papers →rs762551
CYP1A2
Caffeine metabolism
3 papers →rs12736689
RGS16
Morning vs. evening chronotype
2 papers →rs1799971
OPRM1
Opioid receptor sensitivity
2 papers →rs10033464
PITX2
Atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter
1 paper →rs1006737
CACNA1C
Schizophrenia
1 paper →rs10146997
NRXN3
Waist circumference
1 paper →rs10832027
ARNTL
C-reactive protein levels or triglyceride levels (pleiotropy)
1 paper →rs11545787
RASD1
Morning vs. evening chronotype
1 paper →rs12208357
LPA
Cholesterol, total
1 paper →rs1229984
ADH1B
Alcohol metabolism speed
1 paper →rs12936587
RASD1
Coronary heart disease
1 paper →rs12970134
MC4R
Waist circumference and related phenotypes
1 paper →rs182052
ADIPOQ
Adiponectin levels
1 paper →rs1823125
PAX8
Sleep duration
1 paper →rs199347
GPNMB
Parkinson's disease
1 paper →rs2300478
MEIS1
Restless legs syndrome
1 paper →rs2736100
TERT
Lung adenocarcinoma
1 paper →rs2954029
TRIB1
Triglycerides
1 paper →rs3923809
BTBD9
Restless legs syndrome
1 paper →rs4149056
SLCO1B1
Statin muscle-side-effect risk
1 paper →rs4765913
CANCNA1C
Bipolar disorder
1 paper →rs505922
ABO
Pancreatic cancer
1 paper →rs5370
EDN1
Circulating vasoactive peptide levels
1 paper →rs55694368
PER2
Morning vs. evening chronotype
1 paper →rs7103411
BDNP
Menarche (age at onset)
1 paper →rs713598
TAS2R38
Bitter taste perception (PTC/PROP tasting)
1 paper →rs76904798
LRRK2
Parkinson's disease
1 paper →rs8050136
FTO
Type 2 diabetes
1 paper →rs887829
UGT1A1
Bilirubin levels
1 paper →rs9364554
SLC22A3
Prostate cancer
1 paper →rs9479402
VIP
Morning vs. evening chronotype
1 paper →rs9565309
FBXL3
Morning vs. evening chronotype
1 paper →rs964184
ZNF259
Triglyceride levels
1 paper →rs9941349
FTO
Obesity (extreme)
1 paper →How this was counted
Europe PMC, title and abstract only, searched for “insomnia”, “sleep duration”, “chronotype”, “circadian preference”, “daytime napping”, “daytime sleepiness”, “sleep apnea” alongside each published rsID. Full text was not counted: it returns every paper with an rsID buried in a supplementary table. Recounted monthly.
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Sleep and insomnia. MyGeneLog™. https://www.mygenelog.com/topics/sleep
Questions about Sleep and insomnia
What is Sleep and insomnia?
Sleep and insomnia is this site's topic page for why some people wake at 5am without an alarm and others cannot — tracking which published variants share a paper with sleep-research terms like insomnia, chronotype and sleep apnea.
Does genetics explain why I am a morning person or have insomnia?
Partly, for chronotype specifically — some early-rising tendency is inherited — but a variant showing up here is a co-mention, not proof it decided your schedule. Light exposure, work hours, age and stress all shape when someone actually wakes.
Why is sleep and insomnia a topic on this site now?
Sleep trackers now hand nearly everyone a nightly number, and the question that follows is always whether that number is inherited. This page answers that honestly: a co-mention means a paper discussed sleep and a variant together, not that the variant set the score.
Can the sleep and insomnia topic miss variants that belong on it?
Yes — a missing search term is invisible to this method. The list was widened in 2026 after a check found 38 of the site's variants tied to the trait "Daytime nap" were not being counted because "daytime napping" was not yet a search term.