The results: Genetically-altered mice also slept for fewer hours, with no negative health effects.Īs research progressed, the team discovered there were also some positive personality characteristics that came along with the ability to successfully sleep for only five hours. Since then, the team has discovered two more genes – an ADRB1 mutation and a NPSR1 mutation – which alter neurotransmitters in the human brain to create short sleep.ĭuring each of these studies, the team bred mice with the same genetic mutations to test the gene’s function. By 2009, the team published their first finding: There was a mutation in the gene DEC2 which caused short sleepers to stay awake longer. The hunt was on for more people – like the Johnsons – who fit that pattern. The Johnson siblings in 2009: Rob, Brad, Paul, Kathy, Janice, Rand, Todd and Scott. “It was a big deal for sure and the whole family were very nice and very interested in the science,” said sleep specialist Chris Jones, a professor emeritus of neurology at the University of Utah, who collected the family’s blood and DNA samples. They became one of the first multi-generational families to be tested for what would be later called the “short sleep gene.” It was at one of those bi-yearly reunions – Jto be exact – when Brad Johnson, his siblings and some of his large, extended family made history. “When we have family reunions every other year in Utah, it’s a big mob, maybe 200 or 250 people can be there.” “Brad has eight, Paul has nine and my younger sister Kathy has 13 children and 70 grandchildren, but that’s a guesstimate,” said Janice with a chuckle. “I only have four children and nine grandchildren, it’s probably one of the smallest families,” said Brad’s oldest sister, 71-year-old Janice Stauffer. Everyone married, prospered and had large families of their own. “I kinda remember being really irritated once in awhile when they’d turn the lights on me,” said 63-year-old Todd Johnson. The three youngest members of the family, Todd, Scott, and Rob, also had no trouble snoozing the night away, if their dad or siblings allowed it. “I’m almost certain he was a short sleeper, he always up early in the morning and he had this amazing energy level,” Brad said. “We are voracious, voracious readers.”īrad’s older sisters Janice and Kathy also struggled to stay in bed, as did their dad, Vere Johnson. “Everyone in our family loves to read,” Brad said. In the dark, wee hours of those mornings the boys practiced basketball, did homework and hobbies and read everything they could get their hands on. In fact, the boys were amazingly productive, driven to wake and immediately tackle life with gusto and high spirits. In his large Mormon family of eight kids, his two older brothers Rand and Paul also woke early and suffered no ill effects. Back row: Paul, Janice, Rand Courtesy Brad Johnsonīrad wasn’t alone. Johnson family, 1961: Front row from left: Todd, Winnie Amacher Johnson is holding Scott, Vere Hodges Johnson, Brad, Kathy.
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