About three percent of people on our planet hardly sleep at night and still feel perfectly healthy. How is that possible? Researchers have finally gotten closer to solving this mystery.
Hidden Superheroes: People Who Thrive on Very Little Sleep
People with this trait function during the day just as effectively as everyone else. Lately scientists have not only unraveled the nature of this phenomenon but have also started asking whether other people could have the same ability.
According to statistics, the world sleeps
- 7–8 hours (normal) – 57–64% of people
- 5–6 hours – 23–35%
- 3–4 hours – 1–3%
, driven by biology, is not a way of thinking, not a habit, and not a sign of willpower. It is a biological trait, writes BBC Science Focus.
Over the past 20 years researchers have identified at least seven genes that allow people to sleep well below the average and still stay energetic and healthy.
One of the first keys to the mystery was the DEC2 gene, which helps regulate orexin levels — the brain chemical that promotes wakefulness. People who naturally sleep less produce higher levels of orexin, so they feel alert even after much shorter rest.
When researchers introduced this mutation into mice, the animals began to sleep significantly less without showing the cognitive impairments that normally follow sleep loss.
Professor Guy Leschziner, a consultant neurologist and sleep expert, says all available evidence now points to short sleep being purely genetic.
“People who sleep very little don’t think it’s abnormal until someone close to them points it out,” Guy Leschziner says.
Still, the pattern can be hereditary, with older and younger relatives sharing similar sleep routines and treating that schedule as normal.
Researchers are rapidly advancing our understanding of this phenomenon. The next question is whether it’s possible to give other people the ability to sleep less through artificial means.
CRISPR to the Rescue
Gene engineers are already exploring that possibility. They believe CRISPR — the gene-editing technology that can alter DNA with remarkable precision — would be the tool to use.
So far CRISPR has been used mainly to treat genetic diseases. But as the technology improves, scientists are increasingly convinced it could go beyond treating illness and enhance human traits, including sleep.
“Did you know there’s a percentage of the population for whom is enough? And they don’t get tired… People talk a lot about longevity, but imagine if we all had that ability. With current technology, it could be possible,” says Trevor Martin, a gene engineer and CEO of Mammoth Biosciences.
Martin’s company is developing new CRISPR tools that are smaller and easier to deliver into human cells than earlier versions.
But is it simple to turn a person into someone who sleeps only a few hours a night? Scientists say it is theoretically possible, but it’s not that straightforward. There’s also a societal question to consider.
“I think society would need to be reorganized, because we’d all suddenly have an extra three or four hours a day that we would need to fill with something,” Leschziner says.
Photo: Unsplash
