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There are many factors that can trigger insomnia. External factors can include caffeine and alcohol consumption, unfavorable room environment, to jet lag. While internal factors usually come from stress and psychological disorders. However, recent research suggests that insomnia may be a hereditary disease.
In fact, there are certain genes that affect the quality of your sleep. These genes can have a direct impact on sleep cycles or trigger psychological disorders characterized by symptoms of insomnia.
Insomnia is hereditary in some people
If a family member has insomnia, you are likely to have the same condition.
The risk can even increase by up to 30 percent, as reported by a study in the journal Nature Reviews Disease Primers.
In another study in the journal Sleep, genetic factors are known to trigger insomnia by making you wake up frequently at night.
The study also found that women are more prone to inheriting insomnia symptoms than men. These various findings suggest that insomnia does have characteristics such as hereditary diseases.
Even so, these studies do not specifically explain the relationship between a person's genetic condition and symptoms of insomnia.
The reason is, there are not only one gene that triggers insomnia in a person, but hundreds.
This was found in a data set involving more than 1.3 million people in the UK. This data is the result of a study of the respondent's complete DNA set.
The result, there are 202 types of gene loci and 956 types of genes that are always found in people with insomnia. Gene loci is the position of a gene on a person's chromosome.
If it is located incorrectly, the effect is disorder, disease, or in this case, insomnia. Therefore, insomnia can be said to be a hereditary disease.
Insomnia is often said to be a hereditary disease because errors in these genes can be passed from one generation to the next.
It is this gene error that ultimately causes disruption in three types of cells, namely:
- Striatal cells, these cells regulate many brain functions, including motivation, motor movement, learning abilities, and memory.
- Hippocampus cells, The hippocampus is the part of the brain that regulates learning, understanding, memory and behavior.
- Claustrum, claustrum is a thin layer of gray matter on the brain. Its function is to connect and convey signals between several parts of the brain.
Insomnia can arise due to inherited psychological disorders
Insomnia is also a symptom of various psychological disorders. For example, anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and so on.
In some people, insomnia can also arise due to severe and prolonged stress.
Sometimes a condition that is hereditary in the family is not insomnia itself, but the mental illness that triggers it.
Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia are just a few examples of psychological disorders that are inherited.
Based on research on the page National Institutes of Health, abnormalities in the CACNA1C gene will interfere with brain function that regulates emotions, thoughts, attention and memory.
This is the forerunner of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression.
The same condition can occur in someone who inherits an abnormality in the CACNB2 gene.
Abnormalities in this gene will block the brain's signaling pathways and eventually lead to certain psychological disorders.
Although not a real disease, insomnia can indeed be hereditary.
This condition is often considered a disease because it often coincides with various psychological disorders.
If a family member has insomnia, the best thing you can do to lower your risk is to develop good sleep habits.
Thus, you can maintain a normal sleep cycle and avoid these disorders.
