For all of our lives, we have been told that adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep so we can be working at optimal mental efficiency while also warding off the dangers of heart disease, a weakened immune system, and dementia. However, recent research has found that there are some lucky bastards out there who are genetically predisposed to reaping all the benefits of 7 to 9 hours of sleep while only getting 4 to 6 hours of sleep.
Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, Louis Ptáček, a neurologist, and Ying-Hui Fu, a human geneticist and neuroscientist, found that there are people out there called natural short sleepers who have a syndrome called Short Sleeper Syndrome, or SSS. These people, who probably don’t even know how lucky they are, can get way less sleep than the rest of us and end up feeling better than any of us had ever felt at any point in our lives.
What is Short Sleeper Syndrome?
These short sleepers have genetic mutations that allow them to get more efficient sleep. Their rest is deeper, and more restorative thanks to higher levels of Orexin, a hormone in the brain that promotes wakefulness. What would be a night of sleep deprivation for some results in high energy levels for those with SSS.
Since short sleepers aren’t suffering from sleep deprivation, there also protected against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Researchers are currently looking into whether short sleepers are also protected from heart disease and diabetes, which are commonly associated with sleep deprivation.
There’s still a lot to learn about how short sleepers function, but for now, all we can do is stare with disdain as these perky bastards wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed while the rest of us have to take our coffee intravenously just to feel alive.
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