AP, NYTimes, USA Today, NPR, etc: Snooze genetics; or … Just can’t get 8 hours of sleep? Maybe insomnia, or maybe you won a DNA lottery
Science magazine has a news winner today in a report sure to have sparked conversation around a lot of office coffee machines already today. And it may explain why, while most staffers grab a cuppa joe just to get their eyeballs above half-mast and to avoid a keyboard face-plant, there’s that irritating office mate who walks in every day bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, , smiling, and perhaps dropping word that he or she got in a bracing walk before dawn and whipped up a full breakfast omelet with muffins, too. And watched the late news last night.
The news is that a team of UC San Francisco and other US and Chinese university researchers, via circuitous route, found a variant circadian rhythm gene in people who regularly and spontaneously sleep around six hours per night, well under the standard 8 to 8.5 hrs. Best part is that when the researchers created or found the same genetic pattern in mice and even in fruit flies, they sleep less too (fruit flies sleep? Who knew? How to tell? No eyelids, right?). This is not only fascinating basic science with practical therapeutic implications, but of intense personal interest to a big slice of the public. And an opportunity for reporters to have some fun.
Best Headline Award:
- AAAS-Science Now – Cassandra Willyard: Early Risers Are Mutants ; And, she says, please don’t hate them for their superhuman powers. They can’t help it.
Other Stories:
- USA Today – Elizabeth Weise: 6 hours of sleep? It’s not enough; Except for that small percentage of mutants.
- Times (UK) Mark Henderson: Genetic mutation may be why some peple need less sleep than others ; And among those with the power of low sleep is Margaret Thatcher. Her admirer George Bush: not so much. No word whether the pertinent genetic data will be obtained from the Iron Lady.
- NY Times – Tara Parker-Pope: Mutation tied to Need for Less Sleep Is Discovered ;
- Science News – Tina Hesman Saey: A GENE FOR A SHORT NIGHT”S SLEEP ;
- Independent (UK) Steve Connor: So, who do some people need such little sleep? ; He lists a bunch of others in addition to Thatcher who might have had the gene. And shows pics of two people of distinct bloodline who don’t: The Queen and Prince Charles, one dozing in a skirt and the other in a kilt at some ceremonial event or other.
- AP – Lauren Neergaard: Scientists find rare gene behind short sleepers ;
- HealthDay – Randy Dotinga: They Snooze Less, But they Don’t Lose ;
- Bloomberg – Rob Waters: Six Hours’ Sleep Is Plenty for Lucky Few With rare Gene Mutation ;
- Wired News – Hadley Leggett: Lucky Sleep Mutants Need Fewer Zzzzzs ;
- NPR All Things Considered – Geoff Brumfel: Gene May determine How Much Sleep You Need ;
- Voice of America – Jessica Berman : Researchers Discover Gene that Affects Sleep ;
- Time Magazine – Laura Blue: Why do some people need less sleep? It’s in our genes, new research suggests ;
- Deseret News – Carrie A. Moore: Do humans have a ’sleep gene’? ;
- Popular Science – Jeremy Hsu: Rare Gene Mutation Keeps People Alert on Less Sleep ;
Grist for the Mill:
UC San Francisco Press Release ;
Pic source ;
-CP
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