composition during sleep and found significant genetic influences on some aspects of sleep architecture including the duration of sleep stage 3 and REM sleep, as well as spectral composition of non-REM sleep, particularly in delta, alpha, and theta bands (Ambrosius et al., 2008). Finally, most recent studies have identified specific genetic variants contributing to individual differences in sleep EEG patterns, including functional polymorphisms of the clock gene PER3 and of genes contributing to signal transduction pathways involving adenosine (ADA, ADORA2A), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dopamine (COMT) and prion protein (PRNP) (reviewed inLandolt, 2011).
