Genes

It's been a while since my last blog... not because I can't be bothered. But too much to think about. A few weeks ago I was fortunate to go see The Happiness Project at the theatre - an experiment between scientists and teenagers to explore happiness. I thought this blog entry would be a good review for this production, but in all honesty, I left with my head spinning. The two hour production pretty much covered everything about happiness; psychological, experimental, scientific, theoretical and the down right airy fairy!!

So, I have decided instead to explore the main themes that stood out for me, one blog at a time. There was one character that really stood out for me, a teenager who was always happy, or so she says.  Positive thinking makes you happy right? If you believe you're happy then you will be, right?  Well that's what the books say.  But I have been thinking about this girl for a few weeks now.... and now I am not so sure.

Generally, I think I am a positive and happy person, I probably have always been. I have my moments of being cross, but generally, happiness comes naturally to me. If I look at my gene pool - my siblings, parents, they are all happy people. They are very optimistic, especially when it comes to time lines!!  And I wonder if this is in our genes. I look around me, I know people who are happier and more positive than me, and I know people who certainly are not. Is your genetic disposition dictating your happiness? Is it futile for me to be happier when I already am? Is it naive for me to believe people can be happier by following the formula's that are laid out here, when they just can't?

I am not talking rubbish here, there is apparently a link between happiness and genes. Firstly, happy people seem to have a combination of personality traits that make them who they are.  Then there are some genes that are over activated in happy people that seems to be responsible for happiness. Serotonin transport proteins.  These are definitely under active in depressed people and over active in happy people. Great, I thought this a great target for drug discovery - a target for Serotonin transport proteins - a pill to make you happy. Unfortunately, someone beat me to it, there is a happy pill that activates Serotonin transport proteins. Its called cocaine :-(

sleep

Sleep. The new buzz word. I hear it everywhere these days.  Bhutan has now declared itself a happier nation. Why is that? The Prime Minister claims it’s because its citizens are sleeping more. In fact 91.2% of Bhutanese citizens have declared themselves happy.  Funnily, those who are happiest are the monks. Probably because they never marry.  

The sleep connection to happiness goes further. Shocking. 23% of married couples do not share the same bed. But these couples claim that this is the key to their successful happy. And why? Because you get a good nights sleep. The tossing and turning (or even snoring) of a partner beside you disrupts the quality of your sleep. More and more of my married friends in my circles admit this.  I’m a bit selfish; I get the bed to myself anyway.  So now, instead of staying up all night finishing off your jobs, leave it all and get to bed. And its uninterrupted sleep that’s the key.

I feel quite naïve reading all this.  In my very first blogs I spoke about my changes to become a happier person, and I thought my 8 hours a night was ridiculous and I needed less sleep. If you’ve been following my blog, you realise I did a u-turn, and I realised how non functional I was on 6 hours sleep. I agree, sleep is necessary and key to a happy life.  But its scientific attributes are only beginning to become evident, the realities of actually how a lack of sleep is hurting us, even killing us.  It makes us more stressed, irritable, on a physiological level, it increases blood pressure, depression, muscular aches, obesity, headaches. So grab a pillow and a blanket and take a snooze – it will only make you happier.