1
Sleepyheads can blame it on their genes
LONDON: Sleeping too much, or nodding off at exactly the wrong time, does not exactly
mean you are lazy or dozy. It could all be due to a gene named "shaker".
Researchers at the US-based University of Wisconsin Medical School have discovered that
a single gene mutation in fruit flies could hold the key to new treatments for people who
sleep too long - or too little, reports the Scottish daily Scotsman.
Like humans, fruit flies sleep anywhere from six to 12 hours a night. Most people need about
eight hours to function properly, but some - famously such as Margaret Thatcher and Madonna
- get by with just three or four.
Fruit flies are similar in their genetic make-up to that of humans. Researchers found that
mutation of the genes enable them to exist on a third of the normal amount of sleep.
Those flies functioned normally but did not live as long as other fruit flies.
In another similarity with humans, they found young fruit flies needed more sleep than adults
while "elderly" flies appeared to sleep for shorter periods.
Campbell Reid, a sleep researcher at Glasgow University, said there was plenty of "anecdotal
evidence" of people who could exist on as few as four hours sleep a night, but previously there
was little to suggest why this happened.
"People say there's a vast range of sleep needed. You need less sleep the older you get. Trying
to understand that is probably quite critical to understanding the whole issue of sleep," he said.
Shortened version of article on
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE320050429071443&Page=3&Title=Featur
es+-+Health+%26+Science&Topic=-162