{"id":91033,"date":"2025-05-10T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/91033\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T21:21:08","slug":"scientists-made-a-new-breakthrough-in-the-genetics-of-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/91033\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Made a New Breakthrough in the Genetics of Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For most people, sleeping for just four hours every night is likely to have adverse effects on their health. Signs of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.webmd.com\/sleep-disorders\/ss\/slideshow-signs-not-enough-sleep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">not getting enough sleep<\/a> include depression and moodiness, along with the possibility of gaining weight. But for a very small group of people, four hours of sleep per night is perfectly adequate to keep their bodies and minds functioning properly.  The term to describe this phenomenon is \u201cnatural short sleepers,\u201d and scientists have discovered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucsf.edu\/news\/2019\/10\/415671\/short-sleep-gene-prevents-memory-deficits-associated-sleep-deprivation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">several genes<\/a> that can result in it.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2500356122\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study<\/a> published earlier this year in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America provided more detail about another mutation, known as SIK3-N783Y. The paper\u2019s authors both located this genetic mutation in a human subject and were able to replicate it in mice, which they noticed \u201c[demonstrated] reduced sleep duration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The scientists also noted that their findings could play a role in \u201cpotential therapeutic strategies to enhance sleep efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehook.com\/longevity\/does-sleep-have-aging\" class=\"align-middle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/insomnia.jpg\" alt=\"What Does Sleep Have to Do With Aging? Everything.\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>University of California San Francisco genetecist Ying-Hui Fu, one of the paper\u2019s authors, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-025-01402-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told Nature\u2018s Freda Kreier<\/a> that she has been working with short sleepers for over a decade. \u201cThese people, all these functions our bodies are doing while we are sleeping, they can just perform at a higher level than we can,\u201d she told Nature.<\/p>\n<p>Now that this research has been published, it remains to be seen where Fu and her fellow scientists\u2019 research will lead them next. Nature\u2018s reporting points out that they have found a total of five genetic mutations so far that relate to sleep; what they might learn from there could improve what we know about sleep\u2019s effects on the body \u2014 and why getting a certain amount of it each night is so important.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore Like This<\/p>\n<p><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\">Whether you\u2019re looking to get into shape, or just get out of a funk,\u00a0<\/b><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\"><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehook.com\/campaign\/the-charge?eid=%7B%7Bmd5(email)%7D%7D&amp;lctg=%7B%7Bprofile.id%7D%7D&amp;utm_source=InsideHook&amp;utm_medium=text-module\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.insidehook.com\/campaign\/the-charge?eid=%7B%7Bmd5(email)%7D%7D&amp;lctg=%7B%7Bprofile.id%7D%7D&amp;utm_source=InsideHook&amp;utm_medium=email\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">The Charge<\/a><\/b><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\">\u00a0has got\u00a0<\/b><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\">you<\/b><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\">\u00a0covered. Sign up for our new wellness newsletter today.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most people, sleeping for just four hours every night is likely to have adverse effects on their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[43141,3907,267,3912,70,234,16,15,2488],"class_list":{"0":"post-91033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-250-499-words","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-genetics","11":"tag-medicine","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sleep","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wellness"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114485637212109624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}