Elite Sleepers: Quality Beats Quantity?

Is eight hours of sleep still the gold standard? For some people, sleep quality may actually be more important than quantity. Researchers at UC San Francisco conducted a study that highlights “elite sleepers,” people whose genes enable them to stay bright and alert with only four to six hours of sleep a night. These elite sleepers also show psychological resilience and resilience to certain conditions that may fend off neurological disease later in life. 

“There's a dogma in the field that everyone needs eight hours of sleep, but our work to date confirms that the amount of sleep people need differs based on genetics,” said neurologist Louis Ptacek, MD, one of the senior authors on the study. “Think of it as analogous to height; there's no perfect amount of height, each person is different. We've shown that the case is similar for sleep.”

For over a decade, Ptacek and co-senior author, Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, both members of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, have been studying people with Familial Natural Short Sleep (FNSS), the ability to function fully on—and have a preference for—four to six hours of sleep a night. With FNSS, the brain accomplishes its sleep tasks in a shorter time, so less time spent efficiently sleeping may not equate to a lack of sleep. They’ve shown that FNSS runs in families and thus far have identified five genes across the genome that play a role in enabling this efficient sleep. There are still many more FNSS genes to find, the researchers said, and improving peoples’ sleep could delay progression of disease across a whole spectrum of conditions.

No matter how many hours of sleep you’re predisposed to need, it’s still critical to make sure you get a good night’s sleep. Exposure to daylight first thing in the morning, not drinking caffeine after midday, and dimming the lights in the evening while staying away from tech at least 90 minutes before bed are some top tips to ensure a good night’s sleep.