Why some people can get away with only a little sleep every night

Scientists have identified a rare breed of people who consistently get little shut-eye and are no worse for wear.

Natural short sleepers are genetically wired to need only four to six hours of sleep a night.

These outliers suggest that quality, not quantity, is what matters.

Thomas Edison called sleep a waste of time and claimed to never sleep more than four hours a night..

Short sleepers are more efficient at removing toxic brain aggregates that contribute to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s.

People who are naturally short sleepers seem to be immune to the ill effects of sleep deprivation.

It isn’t yet clear how the short sleeper genes identified thus far shield people from the effects of poor sleep.

Zee ’s lab has tinkered with using acoustic stimulation to boost the slow waves of deep sleep that enhance memory processing.

The next day those participants remembered more in a test of learning and recalling word pairs.

For now, researchers recommend that people focus on getting the amount of sleep they need, recognizing it will be different for different people.