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Short sleepers are fit again after just a few hours of sleep. Find out here why a short night’s sleep is enough for some people and whether this can be healthy.
Five hours of sleep are enough to be fit the next day? Then you belong to the minority of short sleepers. Only around one percent of the population should get by on four to six hours of sleep per nighthow the portal Business Insider informed. In short sleepers, the body and mind recover at record speed – they wake up refreshed after less than eight hours of sleep. Short sleepers are also above average fit and active, like the portal Welt.de reported.
Sleep researchers around the world are studying the phenomenon. The key questions are: Why do some people need so little sleep and can that be healthy? According to Techniker Krankenkasse, many studies show that most people need seven to eight hours of sleep *. As a rule of thumb, if you can work while sitting during long periods of time without getting sleepy, you have found your personal sleep quota. Insufficient sleep has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and a weakened immune system. But does this also apply to short sleepers who simply cannot sleep eight hours even if they want to?
Our body needs enough sleep to regenerate. But not everyone needs eight hours a night.
© Eva Blanco / Imago
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Why do short sleepers only need a few hours of sleep?
The neuroscientist Ying-Hui Fu from the University of California in San Francisco has been researching possible causes for the short sleeper phenomenon for over 20 years. During this time she has that Business Insider according to some of the genes that could be responsible for the short nap. These include, for example, the genetic mutation DEC2, which influences the biological rhythm. Ten years later in 2019, Fu and her team discovered another “short sleeper gene” while analyzing a family in which three consecutive generations of people were short sleepers. It is a mutation in the ADRB1 gene that also promotes natural short sleep: “A mutation in ADRB1 leads to natural short sleep behavior in humans”, it says in a publication by the researchers in the specialist magazine Neuron.
Scientist Ying-Hui Fu has so far not found any risks or disadvantages of the mutation in her 150 test subjects Welt.de. In order to be able to say with certainty that short sleep behavior has no negative effects, further studies must follow. According to the medical newspaper those who sleep six to eight hours a night live the longest. This would have resulted in a study with over 100,000 participants, it is said. (jg) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
More sources: https://www.tk.de/techniker/magazin/
Continue reading: Long awake? With this trick you can finally get to bed earlier
You will never sleep badly again with these eight tricks
You will never sleep badly again with these eight tricks-
Picture list: © Eva Blanco via www.imago-images.de
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