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Genetic Mutation Enables Less Sleep
reporter writes to tell us that researchers are claiming to have discovered a genetic mutation that allows people to manage with much less sleep. One of the researchers hopes that this could lead to artificially reducing the amount of sleep required in your average human. "Although the mutation has been identified in only two people, the power of the research stems from the fact that the shortened sleep effect was replicated in mouse and fruit-fly studies. As a result, the research now gives scientists a clearer sense of where to look for genetic traits linked to sleep patterns."
On second thought, is slitting my wrists an option?
Anyone with access to the paper know if they analyzed the naturally short sleepers for lack of benefits from sleeping? An immune system deficiency? Metabolism rate? Increased food intake? Accelerated aging? Memory and learning issues? Biomass, muscle & organ development?
I'm not a biologist and I don't know what sleep durations are for other mammals but the scientist in me wonders why we settled out at eight hours a day if we are more vulnerable with our eyes closed. You would think it performs pretty important functions (or did perform) for the 5 percent of short sleepers not to collect more food and proliferate more efficiently and more frequently than the other 95% 8 hour sleepers. Perhaps in times of famine or disease this 5% are more susceptible and since we no longer have them they are freed from these shackles? Perhaps (since the two subjects noted were ages 40 and 70) this only becomes apparent with the onset of age that we never made it to back in the day? Any other ideas?
My work here is dung.
I wonder what their sleep patters were like when they were teenagers. When I was in high school, I needed at least 10 hours, and preferred 12. Now that I'm almost 40, I can easily operate on 3 or 4 hours, routinely get 6, and sleeping in on saturday is 8 or 9.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
Thai Ngoc or Hai Ngoc (born 1942) is a Vietnamese insomniac.
A great documentary about this subject was from the Horizon program, entitled The Secret Life of Your Bodyclock. One of the things that they stated was some peoples body clocks run on different cycles. I believe they had examples of a 32 hour "day" clock and a 22 hour one and the differences that this placed on the subjects.
The comment that i wanted to make was that there are probably lots of people who do not fit into the 24 hour lifestyle that we are forced into. The secret life of your bodyclock was very eye opening. They had all sorts of great stats on why you shouldn't exercise in the morning, that you should always consume alcohol between 6-8pm (local time) and a great section on why teenagers hate getting up. Its well worth the watch if you can find it somehow....
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
To the people in extreme poverty, I doubt there is much difference between a guy that walks with a gold stick and other that is able to pay and use for a computer, all the material inside (including some gold sticks) , and also the internet connection + infrastructure... Well, it is a blessing we just live reasonably this allows to both ignore the poor AND criticize the rich for not helping the poor, how lucky we are.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"