Sleep is influenced by a number of environmental factors: lifestyle, diet and exercise. But it is also determined to some extent by our genes.
Research in recent years has more or less discovered everything there is to know about genetic predisposition and sleep. For example, we now think we know why it is that some people suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) during sleep; in Germany, it is at least 10% of the population.
We understand more and more about the reasons for sleep problems, for example, hyposomnia (too short) and hypersomnia (too long), deep and light sleepers, as well as the absence of dreams. We have the answers to these problems and can thus derive remedies and therapies to treat sleep problems.
In articles that will appear during the coming weeks, we will return to this issue several times, addressing specific individual sleep problems and telling you how they can be treated.
Genetic research is an important step towards clarifying sleep disorders at the molecular level. It will also make a major contribution to treating problems more efficiently and in ways that are better adapted to the personal genetic profile.
