Can this new test determine if you are sleep deprived?

Driving when one is sleep deprived can be really dangerous not just for the person but also for other people on the road. Since it can cause accidents and crashes, researchers have now come up with a new kind of blood test that will allow them to determine if a person is sleep deprived. The Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey conducted this study that was done on 36 participants. They were asked to skip one night's sleep and then blood samples were taken and changes in the expression levels of thousands of genes were measured.



A machine algorithm identified a subset of 62 genes with 92% accuracy. It could detect whether the sample was sleep deprived or well rested. “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 study author Simon Archer.



“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,” said lead author Derk-Jan Dijk. Stay tuned for more updates.