Research
Hormonal
Physical activity and sleep duration are highly polygenic traits with significant heritability driven by central nervous system pathways, rather than just metabolic or muscular factors.
Your natural tendency to be active or sedentary has a genetic component, particularly linked to brain function. This doesn't mean you are stuck; it means you might need to work harder or use different strategies to build activity habits than others. Focus on consistency rather than intensity if starting out.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Heritability partitioning, enrichment and pathway analyses indicate the central nervous system plays a role in activity behaviours.
Why this rating
Large-scale GWAS with objective measures provides robust evidence for genetic architecture.
Source
GWAS identifies 14 loci for device-measured physical activity and sleep duration
Aiden Doherty et al. · Nature Communications · 2018
DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-07743-4
cohort · n=91105Cited 437×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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