Writer Rachel Kaufman from National Geographic reports how Japanese researchers discovered cells in hair-follicles containing genes that regulate our body clocks.

Makoto Akashi of the Research Institute for Time Studies at Yamaguchi University in Japan and his colleagues plucked hair samples from the heads and beards of four test subjects every three-hours throughout one day.

The subjects reported their preferred schedules for waking up and eating as well as any other lifestyle preferences. For nine days, the subjects had rigorously kept to their preferred schedules meaning the early-birds awoke at their usual time while the other group woke up late as they normally do.

The researchers then tested the genes from the subjects’  hair follicles and found activity in the body-clock gene peaked right after a subject just woke up, which suggests that the brain switches on the genes at different times of the morning in different people whether it was 6 a.m. or 10 a.m.

Because other clock genes followed corresponding patterns, it’s possible to predict morning people just with a simple strand of hair.

Akashi hopes the noninvasive method can be used  in schools and companies to early diagnose any clock disorders and maintain healthy internal clocks.

Read full article: How your hair reveals whether you’re a morning person