Why do some people stay up late and get up early

In our work and life, we will meet people who can play the roles of "night owl" and "early bird" They can go to bed late and get up early, but they can be energetic all day These "short sleepers" are enviable, but we can't follow them What makes them so "super"? A new study in the United States has found a key gene mutation in a receptor called npsr1 The mutation plays an important role in human sleep science, the researchers said in a paper published in the Journal of Science Translational Medicine on the 16th When introduced into mice, it can reduce sleep without showing signs of insufficient sleep and impaired memory formation Sleep is essential to human health, but scientists know little about how to regulate the time and quality of sleep Ordinary people need at least 7 hours of sleep every night to ensure sufficient energy the next day If they sleep for less than 6 hours for a long time, it will lead to memory loss and increase the risk of obesity, heart disease and stroke But for short sleepers, six hours of sleep is enough Even if they only sleep four to six hours a day, they will still be alive In order to understand the genetic secrets of short sleepers, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Utah worked together to sequence the genes of two members of a family of short sleepers, and found that the gene of a receptor called npsr1 in their body had mutation The researchers introduced the mutation into mice and found that the mutant mice were more active and slept less than their wild-type counterparts What's more, these mutant mice have good resilience Although they have less sleep time and face more sleep pressure, their memory test is as good as that of wild mice In addition, the mutant mice also showed some biological differences because their neurons were abnormally sensitive to the neuropeptide NPs interacting with npsr1 The findings highlight the importance of the npsr1 receptor in human sleep biology and elucidate the relationship between sleep regulation and memory consolidation, the researchers said At the same time, they stressed that improving sleep efficiency can benefit the general population and patients with sleep disorders (such as insomnia), but before using this discovery to develop new treatments for sleep problems, it is necessary to better understand the role of npsr1