Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2015. Elizabeth Holmes is cited as a role model; Theranos later collapsed and she was convicted of fraud in 2022. Marissa Mayer is introduced as being at Yahoo, which she left in 2017.
When we talked about the 6 unfair advantages some people may have over us, not needing more than four hours of sleep a night was one of them. Donald Trump, Madonna, Barack Obama, Marissa Mayer (Yahoo) and Elizabeth Holmes, among others, share a trait that Napoleon and Margaret Thatcher (the Iron Lady) had in their day.
They didn’t need more than four hours of sleep, and they woke up perfectly rested and fully alert. They didn’t have to make an effort or get into the habit of sleeping little. It’s simply genetic, and an ordinary person can’t compete with it.
Until relatively recently, given what we know about the health consequences of sleep deprivation, it was thought that these privileged few might suffer some effects from their lack of sleep. But according to Ying-Hui Fu, a biologist and professor of human genetics at the University of California, the opposite may be true.
Since Fu began investigating these cases in 1996, everything seems to indicate that whatever means these people don’t need more than four hours of sleep also gives them better physical and mental health.
Although it isn’t an official diagnosis, these cases are associated with a condition known as “short sleeping”. They have also been called “the sleepless elite“. It’s estimated that only 1% of the population has this problem-cum-blessing.
To begin with, the cases analysed show some similarities among these people who don’t need seven, eight or nine hours of sleep:
- They tend to be very physically active.
- They tend to be more optimistic than most people.
- If they sleep more than they need, they tend to feel dizzy.
- They tend to avoid caffeine, as they don’t need it to feel energetic.
- In a high percentage of cases, another member of their family is also a short sleeper, which opens the way to studying the influence of genetics.
Short sleep is considered a sleep disorder in people who find it hard to sleep longer for various reasons but feel tiredness building up in their body as the week goes on. In the case of this 1% of the population, however, we would not be talking about a disorder, but about a genetic advantage: a gift.
In 1996, Ying-Hui Fu was approached by a woman looking for the answer to a question: “Why does everyone in my family go to bed late and get up very early every day?” The woman was 64. Her name was Abby Ross; she was a psychologist and a keen marathon runner.
That was when Fu began studying the family, starting research that has now lasted more than 20 years. Besides early risers and night owls, it turned out that some people fell somewhere in between, and Fu also found that the people in each group tend to share certain traits.
Ms Ross underwent all kinds of medical tests and psychological questionnaires at Fu’s clinic, on the condition that she would never find out whether she had the genes being linked to people who didn’t need much sleep. The lab’s reasoning was that if someone came in with symptoms of “short sleep” and didn’t have any of the short-sleeper genes identified so far, that didn’t mean they weren’t a short sleeper; there might be other genes still to be investigated.
Ross accepted the “deal” because she was sure that what she had was not a problem but a gift. It had been an advantage for her at school and at university, where she finished her degree in three years, because her condition allowed her to take more subjects than usual and study for more hours with no extra fatigue.
What about short sleepers’ health?
The cases Fu has analysed show that they enjoy excellent health. Ross has always led a very active life and, according to the Business Insider article, ten years ago she ran three marathons in a single month. Even at 64, she walks five miles a day, among other daily activities.
Ms Ross’s father, also a short sleeper, is 92 and in good health. Most of the short sleepers who come to Fu’s lab are between 40 and 70 years old and in good health.
The researchers are still looking for more genuine short sleepers so they can keep identifying the genes that confer this gift, because the hypothesis that these genes are involved in longevity is gaining a lot of ground.
According to Fu, at some point in the future we might find the key that lets all of us sleep only four hours even if we weren’t born that way, solve every sleep-related problem and keep our brains healthy.
Then, I imagine, someone would think of making the working day longer, since we wouldn’t need to sleep as much, and that would be the end of that.
See also: How the day you were born influences your success
Featured image: Image Catalog, CC0 1.0, via Flickr.
