According to an Associated Press report on the 13th, American scientists discovered a gene that helps mothers and their daughters sleep six hours a night. This gene allows mother and daughter to sleep for two hours less than other members of the family.
This discovery was published in the "Science" magazine published on Friday. Scientists believe that this is a very rare genetic mutation and cannot be used as an excuse for us to sleep late, but it provides a new way to study how sleep affects health.
The National Institutes of Health believes that adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep. It is generally believed that too little sleep will lead to health problems, including impaired memory and decreased immune function. A 2006 survey estimated that about 30 million Americans suffer from long-term sleep problems and millions of Americans have other sleep disorders, including sleep apnea.
Researchers at the University of California have been working on finding genes that relate to how and when people sleep. In 2001, they discovered a genetic mutation that derailed the mutant carrier's sleep pattern: these people usually go to bed at 7:30 in the evening and wake up at 3:30 in the morning.
Now the team has discovered a gene that controls human sleep. In a family, the 69-year-old mother and her 44-year-old daughter usually go to bed at 10 o'clock. The mother gets up about 4 o'clock in the morning and her daughter gets up about 4:30. They have no obvious signs of illness. There are no differences between the sleep patterns of other members of the family and ordinary people.
Blood tests revealed that the DEC2 gene (which is involved in the control of the body's biological clock) has been mutated in both women.
Researcher Fu Yinghui, a professor of neurology, and his colleagues have developed mice and fruit flies that carry the mutant gene. Sure enough, the activity of Drosophila and brain wave measurements of mice showed that the mutant gene carriers had less sleep. These mice need only less time to recover from sleep exfoliation.
Conclusion: This pattern of variation "provides a unique opportunity to study the effect of sleep on the human body," Fu Yinghui said.