Slashdot Mirror
Short Sleepers Might Be Benefiting From a DNA Mutation
An anonymous reader writes: As someone definitely not in that category, I envy people who can get along with little sleep. I have sometimes secretly believed they're exaggerating. Maybe not. The BBC reports on DNA research that says there might be a genetic basis for the very low sleep needs that some people have. The article says that UC-San Francisco researchers "compared the genome of different family members. They discovered a tiny mutation in a gene called DEC2 that was present in those who were short-sleepers, but not in members of the family who had normal length sleep, nor in 250 unrelated volunteers. When the team bred mice to express this same mutation, the rodents also slept less but performed just as well as regular mice when given physical and cognitive tasks." If it's stuck in the genes, though, I guess I'll still want more hours in a row if I don't want to start hallucinating. So how many hours do you need? I seem to get along with six or seven, but sleep past noon on the occasional weekend day. Update: 07/09 19:24 GMT by T : The latest Freakonomics podcast has some interesting things to say about the economics of sleep, and hours-per-night is a big part of it.
No sense in missing an opportunity to get those lazy Americans a few extra hours of productivity, amirite?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Me too, man. My solution is to date one night owl and one early bird, then sex them both before and after I sleep. So I do sex like twice and then my donger is so big I can often fit in a nooner, but the gas bills for my sports car add up. I'm a millionaire but it's the principle of the matter. Annoying case is right.