Decoding the mystery of the less sleeping people still lived for a long time

For a long time, experts recommend that each person sleeps from 7 to 9 hours every night. Sleeping less than this time can cause health problems such as memory impairment, metabolic disorders, depression, dementia, cardiovascular disease and immune system weakening.

However, recently, the University of California San Francisco has recently discovered that some people sleep less naturally without affecting health. Due to genetic factors, they only need to sleep for 4 to 6 hours. This shows that the quality of sleep is even more important than sleeping time.

“In fact, we still do not understand the nature and effects of sleep. Are you surprised to realize that someone spends a third of life to sleep?”, Dr. Louis Ptáček, a nerve expert at the University of California San Francisco, in charge of the project, said.

Previously, scientists thought that sleeping as simple as a resting body. Thomas Edison even said that sleeping wasted time, claiming he never slept for more than 4 hours a night. Today, the number of adults in the world sleeps less than 5 hours per night at a high level.

Most of the sleep knowledge comes from the two processes of Alexander Borbély in the 1970s. This model described biological and Helico balance Sleep to adjust the time as well as sleep time. The biological clock determines the 24 -hour sleep and awake cycle, based on external signals such as light and darkness. Equalating sleep lips due to internal pressure accumulates when waking up and reducing sleep, like hunger.

However, after meeting a few families with the members all have a habit of sleeping less, Dr. Ptáček and his colleagues are Professor Ying-Hui Fu, realizing the special thing. They conducted research and identified gene mutations that cause this phenomenon, named Dec2. After announcing the discovery, they received a call from thousands of people with similar habits.

A family in the study went to bed late, but still woke up early and awake even after 6 hours of sleep. They were the first to be determined to have a natural narrative of genetics. Since then, Fu and Ptáček have traced the cause to the gene Dec2 mutation.

Two researchers mutated Dec2 into the mouse and found they started to sleep less. They discovered one of the functions of this gene is to control the hormone orexin, which helps to promote alertness. Orexin deficiency is the leading cause of sleep. However, in low -sleeping people, the production of orexin seems to increase.

Over time, the research team identified 7 genes related to the habit of a natural nurturing. They discovered that the ADRB1 gene mutation in a family of three generations often sleep less. This gene is strongly active in the brain -related brain regulation. When stimulating this brain area, mice with ADRB1 mutations wake up easier and longer awake.

In other father and son, the researchers identified the NPSR1 gene mutation, related to the air -conditioning regulation. The mouse has a similar mutation to sleep less and does not have memory problems that often occur after a night of lack of sleep.

The team also discovered two different mutations in the GRM1 gene in two independent families, both of them had a nap. The mouse is transplanted with these mutations, but there is no health problem.

Like mice, people who sleep less naturally by genetic genes seem to be immune to the negative effects of lack of sleep. Research shows that they are ambitious, dynamic and optimistic, have a significant recovery from stress, and have high thresholds, even longer live.

Experts guess, maybe people who sleep less inherited to own so strongly so they overcome the metabolic or congenital metabolic processes that require quiet time in bed. Another hypothesis is that their brain has a special structure, making sleep maximum efficiency.

According to Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Sleep and Biological Medicine at Northwestern University, less sleep but the quality often has many slow wave sleep cycles, thereby creating more cerebrospinal fluids, cerebral baths and spinal cords, allowing people to eliminate more waste.

Recent studies of Fu and Ptáček show that people who sleep less naturally can remove toxic substances accumulated in the brain, contributing to neurodeless disorders like Alzheimer.

To prove this, experts have bred mice with low sleep genes with mice carrying genes that are susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. Typically, the Alzheimer mouse has abnormal protein. This is a sign of dementia in humans. However, when bred, the brain of the mouse has less protein plaque, as if the mutations of the mice are less protecting them. Fu believes that if conducting similar studies on the model of heart disease, diabetes or other diseases related to sleep deprivation, she will receive the same result.

It is not clear why this special gene can make many people sleep less and still live for a long time. To find the answer, Dr. Fu and Dr. Ptáček took people who slept less to the general laboratory to measure brain waves when sleeping. However, the study was interrupted. They expect to continue to learn about this issue in the future.

Currently, experts recommend that people should focus on getting enough sleep, but Dr. Ptáček thinks that the time of 8 hours a night is sometimes “too machinery”. He said: “It is like saying that everyone in the population must be 1.77 m high. But the genetic gene does not work like that.”