Where their sleep lacks in quantity, it’s not lacking in quality. But this doesn’t seem to apply to natural short sleepers. Not getting enough sleep has been linked to a number of health conditions, and it can increase the risk of death. Nor do they spend their weekends or vacations catching up on Z’s. Genuine short sleepers don’t depend on caffeine or naps to keep them going, Fu said.

But for the short sleeper, none of this happens. If most people routinely got less than six hours of sleep, they’d form a sleep debt and might start to notice consequences for their mood, brain functioning and overall health. They sleep so little because they need less rest to recharge. They are energetic all day long, doing all kinds of activities and enjoying their lives,” Fu said.Īn important distinction among short sleepers is that they routinely get very little sleep, night after night, and it never seems to catch up with them. “Natural short sleepers sleep very well and wake up refreshed, wide awake. Their pattern of abbreviated sleep is innate, and they function just as well as someone who’s gotten seven to nine hours of rest, if not better. Genuine short sleepers are extremely rare, Fu said in an email to Discover. In fact, studies have found some evidence to suggest that people who are in denial about being sleep deprived are more adversely impacted than they think. But researchers don’t think most of these people are natural short sleepers. If you think you’re a short sleeper, you’re probably just sleep deprived, like the roughly one-third of Americans who get less than seven hours of sleep a night.Īround 12 percent of Americans say they feel fine on less than six hours of sleep. Are You a Short Sleeper?įirst, let’s get some bad news out of the way. It’s simply a different way of being, one that we could learn a lot from.

Understanding their superhuman sleep needs could unlock some of the standing mysteries of sleep, says Ying-Hui Fu, a researcher who studies the genetics and other attributes of short sleepers at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.įu stresses that natural short sleeping actually isn’t a syndrome or a condition that needs to be fixed. And, unsurprisingly, this group has caught the interest of researchers due to their sleep efficiency.Īlthough sleep needs do vary from person to person, natural short sleepers are rare unicorns in sleep research.

It’s sort of like being both a night owl and early riser at the same time. Some short sleepers say a mere few hours of shut-eye a night is all they need to feel great. Short sleepers wake up feeling refreshed and wide awake, despite clocking six or less hours of sleep per night.

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