“撒切爾”基因讓人每天僅睡4小時

A gene that controls how long we sleep has been discovered by scientists explaining why some people have their own internal alarm clock.

Scientists identified a gene called ABCC9 that can reduce the length of time we sleep. The same gene has previously been linked to heart disease and diabetes.

The discovery could explain why light sleepers, such as Margaret Thatcher, are able to get by on just four hours shut-eye a night.

The Europe-wide study saw 4,000 people from seven different EU countries fill out a questionnaire assessing their sleep habits.

Scientists then analysed their answers, as well as participants' genes.

They discovered that people who had two copies of one common variant of ABCC9 slept for "significantly shorter" periods.

Having already established that the ABCC9 gene was also present in Fruitflies, the team were able to modify it in the animal and shorten the length of time for which it slept.

Study author Dr Karla Allebrandt, from the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich said: ''The ABCC9 gene is evolutionarily ancient, as a similar gene is present in fruitflies. Fruitflies also exhibit sleep-like behaviour. "

"When we blocked the function of the ABCC9 homolog in the fly nervous system, the duration of nocturnal sleep was shortened."據英國《每日郵報》11月25日報道，科學家們發現了一種能控制人睡眠時間長短的基因，這解釋了為什麼一些人擁有自己私人的生物鐘。

科學家們發現了一種名為ABCC9的基因能縮短我們的睡眠時間。先前的研究發現同樣的基因與心臟病和糖尿病有所關聯。

這一研究可以解釋為什麼像瑪格麗特-撒切爾(英國前首相)一樣的淺眠者能夠每晚只睡4個小時。

一項歐洲研究調查了來自7個不同歐盟國家的4000名研究物件，研究人員讓他們填寫了一份關於個人睡眠習慣的調查問卷。

之後科學家們分析了參與者的答案與基因。

他們發現擁有兩個ABCC9基因變體的人睡眠時間明顯較短。

ABCC9基因的既定作用在果蠅身上也得到了證實。該研究小組能修改果蠅的這種基因並縮短其睡眠時間。

該研究的主創人、來自慕尼黑大學的卡爾拉-阿萊勃朗特博士說：“ABCC9基因是由一種古老的基因進化而來的，在果蠅體內發現了和它類似的一種基因。果蠅也表現出了類似於睡覺一樣的行為。”

“當我們阻礙了果蠅神經系統中類似ABCC9的同種基因發揮作用時，果蠅的夜間睡眠時間就縮短了。”