Hey, you, yawning at 2 in the afternoon. Your genes feel it, too.
A new study, paid for by the U.S. Air Force but relevant for anyone with a small child, a large prostate or a lot on the mind, is helping illuminate what happens at the genetic level when we don't get enough sleep.
It turns out that chronic sleep deprivation — in this experiment, less than six hours a night for a week — changes the activity of about 700 genes, which is roughly 3 percent of all we carry.