RT Journal Article A1 Liubin Zheng,Luoying Zhang; AD Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, 中国 ; Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, 中国 ; 湖北省口腔颌面发育与再生重点实验室, 1440581268039905281, 中国 T1 The molecular mechanism of natural short sleep: A path towards understanding why we need to sleep YR 2022 IS 3 vo 8 OP 165-OP 172 K1 mutation;sleep duration;natural short sleep;short sleeper;gene AB Sleep constitutes a third of human life and it is increasingly recognized as important for health. Over the past several decades, numerous genes have been identified to be involved in sleep regulation in animal models, but most of these genes when disturbed impair not only sleep but also health and physiological functions. Human natural short sleepers are individuals with lifelong short sleep and no obvious adverse outcomes associated with the lack of sleep. These traits appear to be heritable, and thus characterization of the genetic basis of natural short sleep provides an opportunity to study not only the genetic mechanism of human sleep but also the relationship between sleep and physiological function. This review focuses on the current understanding of mutations associated with the natural short sleep trait and the mechanisms by which they contribute to this trait. SN 2096-5958 LA EN