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Getting enough sleep is a challenge for many, but some people, called “short sleepers,” can get by on as little as four to six hours of sleep each day without showing any negative effects on functioning or memory. According to a paper published in Science Translational Medicine today (October 16), a variant in the gene NPSR1 may be responsible for naturally short sleep durations in humans and seems to reduce the need for sleep in mice.
Researchers led by Louis Ptácek and Ying-Hui Fu at the University of California, San Francisco, identified a mutation in the NPSR1 gene in two people from a family of short sleepers. NPSR1 codes for a receptor that binds to neuropeptide S, which is found in the brain and is associated with modulating sleep. The team then bred mice with the same NPSR1 mutation and found that these animals slept less ...
