Shift work is on the rise, while some people deal with these irregular schedules better than others. A new study now suggests the ability to cope with shift work may be due to genes.

Around 37 percent of shift workers fail to get enough sleep due to their work schedule. People who work on shifts have many sleep disorders like insomnia and fatigue. These disorders are caused due to the shift work which causes people to have such problems.

Prof. Tiina Paunio, of the University of Helsinki in Finland, and her team sought to determine whether there might be a genetic explanation for this discrepancy.

For the study that was published in the journal Sleep, the researchers analyzed the genomes of shift workers who were part of the Heatlh 2000 Survey, involving more than 8,000 individuals aged 30 and older residing in mainland Finland. As part of the survey, respondents were required to report their experiences of job-related exhaustion and fatigue.

From their analysis, Prof. Paunio and team discovered a variation near the melatonin receptor 1A (MTNR1A) gene that was more common among shift works who reported exhaustion relating to their job.

Further investigation revealed that the variation near the MTNR1A gene is likely associated with a reduction in the number of melatonin receptors, caused by changes to DNA methylation that weaken MTNR1A gene expression.

Melatonin is a hormone that is released into the blood in response to darkness, telling us when it is time to sleep. A reduction in the number of melatonin receptors leads to a decrease in melatonin signaling, which disrupts the circadian rhythm.

"These findings suggest that a variant near MTNR1A may be associated with job-related exhaustion in shift workers. The risk variant may exert its effect via epigenetic mechanisms, potentially leading to reduced melatonin signaling in the brain. These results could indicate a link between melatonin signaling, a key circadian regulatory mechanism, and tolerance to shift work." according to the authors.

However, Prof. Paunio offers a word of caution when interpreting the findings.

"The variant we have now discovered can only explain a small part of the variation between individuals, and it cannot be used as a basis to determine a person's tolerance to shift work," she says.

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