Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Gene Cuts Need for Sleep

At age 69 she's never slept more than six hours a day -- no naps -- yet she's healthy and far more active than most people.

Her 44-year-old daughter also goes to bed at 10 p.m. and gets up at about 4 a.m., even when on vacation. The two share a rare mutation in a gene called DEC2. People with this mutation, researchers find, need less sleep.

The gene is the first ever linked to human sleep behavior. The discovery comes from Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues.

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