Are you sleepless elite or sleep deprived?

How tossing all night in the bed and not getting a good night sleep can have an effect on our mood, making us feel irritated throughout the day.  And, being a nocturnal bird is just-so-not-you, then you will be amazed to know a small group of people called the ‘sleepless elite,’ for whom a lie-in is a waste of time.

Despite being on a sleep tour for just four or five hours, they are an energetic, outgoing and optimistic group rather than being tired, bad-tempered under-achievers.

They also tend to be slim, able to hold down two jobs at the same time, and breeze through their extra-long days without needing caffeine pick-me-ups.

American scientists who studied an extended family in California focused on a mother and daughter who appeared perfectly healthy despite their shared lifelong habit of getting up early in the morning, having gone to bed close to midnight.

And, it was a tiny mutation in gene found during their DNA test called hDEC2 that was missing in other family members who slept normally.

Working out how the gene cuts sleep without any obvious impact on health could help in the design of drugs that give us all a few extra hours in our day. However, only a handful of people out of so many, qualify as a member of sleepless elite. Everyone else is simply sleep deprived.

(Photo Courtesy: Blogspot.com)

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