Source: Academic Edge

According to the recommendations of sleep scientists, most adults aged 18 to 60 years old need at least 7 hours of sleep per day. If they don't get enough sleep, they are likely to feel drowsy during the day, have slower reactions, and struggle to concentrate, which reduces work and study efficiency. Long-term insufficient sleep is even associated with increased risks of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, anxiety, and depression.

However, there are some people who are naturally able to function well on less sleep, getting only less than 6 hours or even 3 to 4 hours, yet still maintaining high energy levels and positive moods without reducing their lifespan. These individuals are known as "short sleepers" by nature.

Professor Ying-Hui Fu of the University of California, San Francisco, has been researching short sleepers for many years to understand what factors allow these people to require less sleep. Many people who claim to naturally need less sleep have come to her lab, but true short sleepers are rare—some are just early risers, not actually sleeping less. Others may simply be suffering from insomnia or staying up late, forcing them to sleep less.

It wasn't until 2009 that Professor Fu, along with Louis J Ptáček from the same university, discovered a rare genetic mutation in a mother-daughter pair who naturally woke up at 4 a.m. This gene, called DEC2, located on chromosome 12, is involved in regulating the internal biological clock. Research showed that a single-point mutation in DEC2 alone could make fruit flies and mice sleep one or two hours less each day compared to their peers.

In the more than ten years since then, the research team identified more short-sleep families, repeatedly confirming that needing less sleep is a talent determined by genes. However, the genes responsible for short sleep are not limited to DEC2. In 2019, they confirmed two additional short-sleep genes in different short-sleep families: ADRB1 on chromosome 10 and NPSR1 on chromosome 7. The former is related to adrenaline function, while the latter is associated with a neuropeptide involved in sleep regulation. Soon after, in 2020, researchers found that two mutations in the gene encoding metabotropic glutamate receptor GRM1 can cause familial natural short sleep.

In general, however, the short-sleep gene mutations discovered so far are still few. Given the complexity of sleep regulation and the diversity of sleep functions, scientists speculate that the short-sleep genes already discovered are just a few pieces of the complete puzzle.

As it turns out, this research team recently discovered another gene mutation that leads to short sleep: SIK3, which encodes salt-induced kinase (SIK3). The research paper, co-authored by Professor Ying-Hui Fu and Dr. Guangsen Shi, currently affiliated with the Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

The paper reports that a mutation occurred in the SIK3 gene of this short-sleep family, specifically the N783Y mutation. When researchers introduced the mutated gene SIK3-N783Y into genetically modified mice, the daily sleep time of the mice decreased by about half an hour. Compared to the previously discovered short-sleep genes, this change in time is not significant, but notably, electroencephalogram (EEG) data showed an increase in δ power during sleep in the mice, indicating that SIK3-N783Y also alters the sleep pattern of the mice, making them sleep more deeply.

Researchers pointed out that the SIK3-N783Y mutation primarily increases the activity of the enzyme it produces at the neural connections (synapses) in the brain, triggering changes in the activity of other sleep-related kinases, such as protein kinase A, thereby regulating sleep homeostasis in the brain.

From the naturally short-sleep individuals identified so far, these rare genetic mutations not only reduce the amount of sleep required but also enable people to gain the full benefits of sleep in a shorter period. As the secrets of natural short sleep are gradually revealed, perhaps in the near future, scientists will find methods to help more people achieve more efficient sleep.

References:

[1] Hongmin Chen et al., The SIK3-N783Y mutation is associated with the human natural short sleep trait. PNAS (2025) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2500356122

[2] Don’t need much sleep? Mutation linked to thriving with little rest. Retrieved May 6, 2025 from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01402-7

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7501877406093935139/

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