A study suggests a link between genetics and whether or not a person is an early or late riser, according to NDTV.

The study, published in Nature Communications, found a clear link between more than a dozen gene variants, and healthy individuals who said they were at their best in the morning. Early risers were signficantly less likely to have insomnia or need more than eight hours of shut-eye per night. They were also less prone to depression than individuals — some 56 percent of respondents — who described themselves as night owls.

The researchers also found that, after taking into account the effect of age and sex, morning persons are likely to have lower — and thus generally more healthy — BMI, or body-mass index, a measure of the ratio between height and weight.

None of these correlations, the researchers cautioned, necessarily imply a cause-and-effect relationship. Nor did the team find genetic links with sleep disorders such as insomnia, apnoea or sweating while slumbering.

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