No Sleep

For a small group of people, perhaps only 1-3 percent of the population, sleep is a waste of time.
By their nature, "malospyaschie," as they are officially called, are owls and larks together. They usually go to sleep after midnight, sleep a few hours and go all day without having to load the cheerful self caffeine.
Still they are energetic, outgoing, optimistic and ambitious, at least, so say the results of several studies of such people. The picture begins to emerge in childhood and often runs in families.
Although it is not known whether all malospyaschie reach great heights, however, they have more time in the day to have time to do things, and instead of sleeping, they find themselves more interesting activities, often doing several things at once.
No one knows how much the whole malospyaschih worldwide. "There are not many people who feel that they have little sleep," says University of Pittsburgh sihiatr Daniel Bayss.
Out of every 100 people who believe that they have enough to sleep 5-6 hours, only about five of these 6.5 hours cost in reality, says Bayss. The remaining graduate chronic lack of sleep.
Until now held only a few small studies, in part because these people hard to find. They rarely go to the doctor because I do not consider this the feature in some disorder.
Several studies have shown that some of malospyaschih be hypomania - a mild form of mania with quick thinking and a lack of constraints. "These are people fast for me. They never stop. They are always on top of life, "says Bayss.
At present it is impossible to train themselves so as to become malospyaschim. But scientists hope that by studying them, they can better understand how the body regulates sleep and why the need for sleep in different people so different.
"My long-term goal is to one day learn enough and we were able to manipulate the sleep habits without damage to health," says geneticist Ying-Hui Fu of the University of California-San Francisco.
Neurologist Christopher Jones of the University of Utah, says that there is one question that quite clear: when people have a chance to sleep more, such as a weekend or during the holidays, whether they are sleeping well at night for 5-6 hours? People who sleep more when they have the opportunity to do so, are not true malospyaschimi, he says.
To date, Dr. Jones says he has identified only about 20 true malospyaschih, and he says that they all have the same interesting features. From ordinary people and are characterized not only circadian rhythms, their moods (very upbeat), and metabolism (on average, more slender, even though the lack of sleep often leads to obesity). They also have a high pain threshold, and easy going through psychological trouble.
"Faced with an unexpected obstacle, they just take myself in hand and try again," said Dr. Jones.
Some malospyaschie say their sleep habits began in childhood, and they see that their own children begin to show the same habits. As adults, they are attracted to different areas, but no matter what they do, they do it with full dedication, Jones said.
"Usually at the end of a long telephone interview, they admit that they wrote together, or climbing on the internet, or solve a crossword puzzle ... They have a kind of psychological and physiological energy, which we simply do not understand."
According to historical chronicles, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Leonardo da Vinci were too busy to sleep much. Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison were workaholic, but loved vzremnut, so they are unlikely to be true malospyaschimi.
Today malospyaschie gravitate to such occupation as blogging, creating video games, and social networks, where their little sleep habits can be very handy. "If I found a way to not sleep, I would have done," said software developer Dave Hutter. He usually sleeps 4-5 hours at night, and a few years ago had only slept for 2-3 hours.
"This is certainly insane, but useful to me," said the night manager at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center Eleanor Hoffman, who better to play with friends mahjong, sleep a little more than four hours. Sometimes she calls her cousin at 4 am, because he knows that she, too, does not sleep, just as in the time when they were children.
"I'm coming back to life at around 11 pm," says Cohen, who with her husband owns the toy store chain, and gets up in the morning with ease. "If I go to bed earlier, you would feel as if half of my life is wasted," she said.