People who fall asleep as soon as they lie on the bed freak me out.

I mean, do they have a magic potion or a mattress that gets them to sleep instantly? Or do they not have thoughts? Here I am, no matter how tired the body is, the mind will be on its own trip.

Turns out those people have nothing magical about them, they just lucked out when it came to genes.

Genes explain how people can get by with just four hours of sleep. That’s why our 64-year-old Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who claims to sleep just four hours, can get by and why mere mortals like me need loads of caffeine if I sleep for less than seven hours.

A new study by scientists at the Thomas Jefferson University has found two genes (Taranis and Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1)) responsible for regulating sleep patterns and determining how much sleep one needs.

The Experiment

Though the study has been done on flies, it will have implications for us, too. Flies need as much sleep as human babies. Male flies sleep for about 12 hours and females need 10 hours. This made the buzzy insects the perfect subject for the experiment.

Scientists used 3000 flies whose gene pool was given random mutations and monitored how well they slept. They found a mutant, called Taranis, that slept a lot less than normal flies. Using a series of genetic and biochemical experiments, the researchers tracked how Taranis interacted with other proteins and saw that Taranis bound to a known sleep regulator protein called Cyclin A. Their data suggest that Taranis and Cyclin A create a molecular machine that inactivates Cdk1, whose normal function is to suppress sleep and promote wakefulness. Meanwhile, those who had the gene completely wiped from their DNA didn’t sleep a wink and functioned normally.

So, the research team concluded that Taranis works in tandem with some proteins to help balance the flies’ sleep cycles.

Cure to Insomnia Soon?

Now, you are perhaps wondering, if these findings can be applied to humans as well?

Yes.

It’s a long road ahead but the protein Taranis has a human cousin, called the Trip-Br in the brain, which plays a similar role in human beings. Scientists hope to further unlock what causes some people to need less sleep and function normally. A novel, targetted drug to help people sleep better is on the horizon.

What’s not clear though is if we’ll ever have a drug for those who cannot get by without seven hours of sleep.