![]() Ross won't ever get her results, though she says the information she's gotten so far is enough. Rather, they may have another gene linked with the disorder that Fu's lab has yet to identify. The lab's rationale for this, as they described it to Ross, is that if someone who came in with short sleeping symptoms didn't have any of the already-identified short-sleeper genes, that wouldn't mean they weren't technically a short sleeper. When she joined Fu's study, she agreed that any information the researchers gathered about her genes linked with short sleeping wouldn't be shared with her. Ross still doesn't know if she has the genes that have since been linked with being a short sleeper. ![]() She decided to contribute to research at Fu's lab, giving blood and answering questions from psychologists and doctors from all over the world. One of the short sleepers that came into Fu's lab was Abby Ross.Īt 64, she began reading about short sleepers and quickly realized she fit the bill. And these similarities aren't limited to how they act: they're genetic as well, meaning they can get passed on through generations.Ībby Ross: Mother, doctor of psychology, marathoner, 'awaker' They'll always wake up early - even on vacation, and they tend to have similar behavioral characteristics as well, like being physically active and optimistic. Instead, short sleepers wake up after very little sleep well rested and ready for the day. Which is why she's dedicated her lab to learning everything she can.īecause here's the thing about short sleepers: They're not people with insomnia, nor are they people with insane caffeine addictions that keep them from getting fully rested. "Other than water and air, nothing is more important" than sleep, she said. For now, most sleep research money goes into funding treatments for sleeping disorders that deprive them of sleep, and those treatments are focused on helping people sleep more, not less.īut Fu thinks that belies how critical this research is. With other disease areas to focus on, it's hard to see the value in exploring the complicated topic of sleep, though it could be a great area for a potential gene therapy, which is an ever-growing research area. That's at least partially because the research money isn't there. "We know almost nothing about how sleep is regulated," Fu told Business Insider. That launched close to 20 years of studying these sleep behaviors to learn more about how people sleep and how genetics may play a role in that behavior. ![]() Perhaps most importantly, she also learned that there were specific traits linked with all three types. Soon, she learned that there were three types of people: early risers, night owls, and people who are somewhere in between. Fu started investigating the traits relating to that family and others who came into the clinic. Ying-Hui Fu, a biologist and human genetics professor at the University of California, San Francisco started studying short sleepers in 1996, when a woman came into the lab asking them to investigate why her whole family woke up at extremely early hours every day. And although many people think they can get by with just four hours of sleep, for the most part they aren't true short sleepers - they're just chronically sleep deprived. That's when she learned that she, along with roughly 1% of the population, is what is known as a "short sleeper," a person who only needs a short amount of sleep every night instead of the average 7-8 hours.Įven though it has no apparent negative health effects, the short sleeping habit is considered a sleep disorder.
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