sleep genes

From the somewhat ironically titled Daniel DeNoon at WebMD (hat tip: Buddy Dowdy), details on...

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....

Many people set their alarms to go off only six hours after they go to bed. But nearly all of them get some kind of "power nap" during the day to keep them going, says sleep expert Richard Simon Jr., MD, medical director of the Kathryn Severyns Dement Sleep Disorders Center in Walla Walla, Wash.

"Most people who get only six hours' sleep a night finally crash," Simon tells WebMD. "People who really need six hours' sleep and no more are in the minority. Most who get only six hours are going through life exhausted."...

"DEC2 is probably a very, very rare mutation. It was found in one family out of 60," he says. "So this mutation explains only some 1% of short sleepers, and we are far from having a complete story."...

So what would happen if someone made a drug that did exactly the same thing as the DEC2 mutation?

"If I had a drug that gave a similar effect as DEC2, it is possible it would be pretty safe because the humans who carry it are safe with the mutation," Fu says....

The Fu study, and an editorial by Tafti and colleague Hyun Hor, MD, appear in the Aug. 14 issue of the journal Science.

A lot of people cannot do well on little sleep-- whether it's training/discipline, temperament, genetics, etc. I'm one of the "6 hours per night and power nap or eventually crash" people described above.