This Rare Gene Mutation Explains Why Some People Only Needs 4 Hours of Sleep

Many of us drag ourselves through the day without enough sleep. The average adult needs around eight hours to feel good and function properly.

But not everyone does. A small number of people say they feel perfectly fine with just four or five hours of sleep each night.

Scientists have now discovered a rare genetic mutation that may explain this, writes WP.

The mutation is called SIK3-N783Y. It was found in people known as “short sleepers.”

These are people who naturally sleep less than the rest of us but still wake up full of energy.

The researchers ran tests on mice that were modified to carry this mutation. The mice also needed less sleep than normal ones.

Ying-Hui Fu is a geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco. She was one of the study’s authors.

She explained that the bodies of short sleepers still do everything they need to during sleep. They rest, repair damage, and clean out waste—just faster.

This finding could lead to better treatments for sleep disorders. Researchers think that understanding how short sleepers function might help improve sleep for people who struggle with it.

If we can figure out how to make sleep more efficient, it could be life-changing for people with insomnia or other problems.

The study showed that the mutant mice didn’t sleep much less than the normal mice. That surprised the researchers.

They think this might be because the mice had more broken-up sleep or because of differences in the type of mice used.

Even so, the discovery is important. The Sik3 gene had already been linked to sleep. Now scientists have more reason to study it closely.

With more research, we might one day learn how to adjust our sleep in helpful ways—maybe even sleep less without feeling tired.

This isn’t about hacking your sleep. It’s about learning from those who are naturally wired differently.