People with the mutation tend to be night owls because it keeps them on a perpetual 24 ½ hour schedule — close to the Martian 24 hour, 39 minute day, researchers reported in the journal Cell.

With their body clocks always running a little longer than everybody else’s, it’s like having perpetual jet lag, the researchers at the Rockefeller University report.

“Carriers of the mutation have longer days than the planet gives them, so they are essentially playing catch-up for their entire lives,” said Alina Patke, who headed up the research effort.