For some, the many hours of sleep is a luxury for others a need. A gene that reduces our need to sleep explains why some people work well shutting their eyes for just 4 hours every 24 hours when others need from 8 to 12 hours sleep each night to function. The gene was named ABCC9 and earlier studies have demonstrated correlation with heart disease and diabetes.
The Great Napoleon and the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher are known for their few needs to sleep.
The study, whose findings are published in the online edition of inspection «Molecular Psychiatry», involving 4,000 volunteers from seven European countries, who completed a questionnaire evaluating sleep habits and underwent analysis of their genetic material. Those of them had two copies of a typical mutation ABCC9, slept much less than what those who had two copies of one another mutation.
"The gene is evolutionarily ancient ABCC9, since there is in drosophila," said chief researcher Dr. Carla Alemprant, Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.
According to the researchers, the gene encoding the protein ABCC9 SUR2, which forms part of the regulatory potassium channel in the cell membrane. These channels act as sensors for energy metabolism in cells.
These findings, in combination, "suggest that the association of sleep duration with disorders of the metabolic syndrome may be partly explained by this common molecular mechanism," she added.
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