Genetic Test Reveals Your Body Clock

A simple mouth swab can tell scientists who's naturally meant to get up early and could forever free people who like a morning snooze from accusations of laziness, the Daily Telegraph reports. The newly developed test reveals the activity of the genes that regulate a person's body clock and identifies their natural sleeping and waking patterns.

Researchers say testing to tell if somebody is an early-rising "lark" or late-sleeping "owl" —or somewhere in between—could help prevent accidents caused by sleepy shift workers. Gaining information about a person's circadian rhythms could also help combat sleep disorders and make treatments such as chemotherapy, shown to work better at certain times of day, more effective. (More circadian rhythms stories.)