Is it true that some people need only a few hours of sleep?

Helen Thomson talks to a woman whose

genes might hint at how we all could survive on less shuteye.
facebook

Twitter

Google +

Email

By Helen Thomson

7 July 2015
What would you do if you had 60 days of extra free time a year? Ask Abby Ross, a
retired psychologist from Miami, Florida, a short-sleeper. She needs only four hours
sleep a night, so has a lot of spare time to fill while the rest of the world is in the land of
nod.
Its wonderful to have so many hours in my day I feel like I can live two lives, she
says.
Short-sleepers like Ross never feel lethargic, nor do they ever sleep in. They wake
early normally around four or five oclock raring to get on with their day. Margaret
Thatcher may have been one she famously said she needed just four hours a night,
whereas Mariah Carey claims she needs 15.
What makes some people fantastically efficient sleepers, while others spend half their
day snoozing? And can we change our sleeping pattern to make it more efficient?
A few people need only a few hours for the brain to recharge (Credit: Thinkstock)
In 2009, a woman came into Ying-Hui Fus lab at the University of California, San
Francisco, complaining that she always woke up too early. At first, Fu thought the
woman was an extreme morning lark a person who goes to bed early and wakes early.
However, the woman explained that she actually went to bed around midnight and woke
at 4am feeling completely alert. It was the same for several members of her family, she
said.
She went to bed around midnight and woke at 4am feeling completely alert
Fu and her colleagues compared the genome of different family members.
They discovered a tiny mutation in a gene called DEC2that 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.
Getting too little sleep normally has a significant impact on health, quality of life and life
expectancy. It can cause depression, weight gain and put you at greater risk of stroke
and diabetes. Sleep is so important, if you sleep well you can avoid many diseases,
even dementia, says Fu. If you deprive someone of just two hours sleep a day, their
cognitive functions become significantly impaired almost immediately.
Why sleep is so important is still a bit of a mystery

But why sleep is so important is still a bit of a mystery. The general consensus is that the
brain needs sleep to do some housekeeping and general maintenance, since it doesnt
get much downtime during the day. While we sleep, the brain can repair cellular
damage, remove toxins that accumulate during the day, boost flagging energy supplies
and lay down memories.
If you had more time in the morning, what would you do with it? (Credit: Thinkstock)
Clearly people with the DEC2 mutation can do the same cleaning up process in a
shorter period of time they are just more efficient than the rest of us at sleeping, says
Fu. But how are they doing that? Thats the key question.
Since discovering the DEC2 mutation, a lot of people have come forward claiming to
only sleep a few hours a day, says Fu. Most of these had insomnia, she says. Were not
focusing on those people who have sleeping issues that make them sleep less, we
wanted to focus on people who sleep for a few hours and feel great.
I always feel great when I wake up - Abby Ross
A positive outlook is common among all of the short-sleepers that Fu has studied.
Anecdotally, she says, they are all very energetic, very optimistic. Its very common for
them to feel like they want to cram as much into life as they can, but were not sure how
or whether this is related to their mutations.
Ross would seem to fit that mould. I always feel great when I wake up, she says. She
has been living on four to five hours sleep every day for as long as she can remember.

Those hours in the morning around five oclock are just fabulous. Its so peaceful
and quiet and you can get so much done. I wish more shops were open at that time, but
I can shop online, or I can read oh theres so much to read in this world! Or I can go
out and exercise before anyone else is up, or talk to people in other time zones.
Her short sleeping patterns allowed her to complete university in two and a half years, as
well as affording her time to learn lots of new skills. For example, just three weeks after
giving birth to her first son, Ross decided to use one of her early mornings to attempt to
run around the block. It took her 10 minutes. The following day she did it again, running
a little further. She slowly increased the time she ran, finally completing not one, but 37
marathons one a month over three years plus several ultramarathons. I can get up
and do my exercise before anyone else is up and then its done, out of the way, she
says.
One way to ensure better sleep is keep wake-up times regular (Credit: Thinkstock)
As a child, Ross remembers spending very early mornings with her dad, another shortsleeper. Our early mornings gave us such a special time together, she says. Now, if
she ever oversleeps which she says has only ever happened a handful of times, her
husband thinks shes dead. I just dont lay in, Id feel terrible if I did, she says.
Take a shortcut
Fu has subsequently sequenced the genomes of several other families who fit the
criteria of short-sleepers. Theyre only just beginning to understand the gene mutations
that lead to this talent, but in principle, she says, it might one day be possible to enable
short sleeping in others.
The most effective way to improve your sleep is to fix your wake-up time in the morning
Until then, are there any shortcuts to a more efficient nights sleep for the rest of us? Neil
Stanley, an independent sleep consultant, says yes: The most effective way to improve
your sleep is to fix your wake-up time in the morning.
Stanley says that when your body gets used to the time it needs to wake up, it can use
the time it has to sleep as efficiently as possible. Studies show that your body
prepares to wake up one and a half hours prior to actually waking up. Your body craves
regularity, so if you chop and change your sleep pattern, your body hasnt got a clue
when it should prepare to wake up or not.

You could also do yourself a favour by ignoring societys views on sleep, he says.
Theres this social view that short sleeping is a good thing and should be encouraged
were always hauling out the example of Margaret Thatcher and top CEOs who dont
need much sleep. In fact, the amount of sleep you need is genetically determined as
much as your height or shoe size. Some people need very little sleep, others need 11 or
12 hours to feel their best.
Stanley says that a lot of people with sleep issues actually dont have any problem
sleeping, instead they have an expectation that they need to sleep for a certain amount
of time. If we could all figure out what kind of sleeper we are, and live our life
accordingly, that would make a huge difference to our quality of life, he says.
Follow us on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.
Share this article:

facebook

Twitter

Google +