Scientists have discovered that the difference in people’s needs for longer or shorter periods of sleep is linked to their genetics more than being affected by other environmental or social factors.
Scientists discovered that those who carry the genetic code known as (ABCC9) need an average of 30 minutes of sleep per night more than others.
The researchers said that this genetic need is not affected by seasonal changes or the length or shortness of the day.
The study, which focused on Europe and covered about 10,000 European volunteers, showed that about a fifth of Europeans carry this gene.
British and German scientists say that these results are related to many health problems, such as obesity and heart disease.
Different needs:
They believe that revealing this new fact will shed more light on human sleep behaviors, and that people’s needs for sleep can vary significantly.
It is noteworthy that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher needed, for example, an average of four hours of sleep per day, while Albert Einstein, the atomic scientist and owner of the theory of relativity, needed about 11 hours per day.
The study, which was conducted by a scientific team from the Universities of Edinburgh in Scotland and the German Ludwig Maximilians in Munich, covered volunteers from Croatia, the Netherlands, Italy, Estonia, Germany and the Orkney Islands.
The researchers expect that the new information will open the door to a new type of research related to sleep behaviors, and thus accurately determine how this genetic gene regulates those behaviors.
The study said that the tendency to sleep for longer or shorter periods exists and is inherited among relatives and families, despite the fact that the sleep period can be affected by age, location on the Earth’s surface, seasons, or the biological clock.
Sleep behavior expert Neil Stanley says that there are about six types of genes responsible for and related to people’s sleep tendencies and behaviors.
