Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about a genetic mutation that makes people need less sleep,

a lost sunken continent at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and why the word

like is not just a lazy language filler. Let's like satisfy some curiosity.

There's a genetic mutation that makes people need less sleep.

As in, a fortunate few people are able to sleep six or fewer hours without any ill effects.

And new research has helped scientists get a handle on exactly what this mutation means.

Back in 2009, scientists at UC San Francisco studied a family of short sleepers,

meaning people who only get four to six hours of sleep, but wake up fresh as a

daisy.

They figured out that their superhuman sleeplessness was due to a mutation of a gene called

DEC2, which helps manage the body's circadian rhythms. And for a study published in August

2019 in the journal Neuron, those scientists started to look for other genes at play. In order

to find more short sleep genes, the scientists screened for genetic mutations

and people known to be short sleepers, and hit upon one particular family with a rare variant

in a gene called ADRB1.

ADRB1 codes for a receptor for the hormone nor epinephrine,

which generally controls the body's motion and alertness.

Your body pumps out nor epinephrine during a fight or flight response,

snapping your brain to attention and making your heart race. As you might imagine,

...