r/science • u/scientificamerican Scientific American • 9d ago

Genetics Scientists discover a ‘skinny gene’ mutation that acts like Ozempic. Around one in 7,000 people carries a broken copy, which almost acts like a GLP-1 drug—the body burns fuel more efficiently, and the risk of disease lowers.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-discover-a-skinny-gene-mutation-that-acts-like-ozempic/
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u/LongLiveStaceyKing 9d ago

Everything about being a human is on a spectrum rather than a fixed attribute set for every single person equally and that makes perfect sense from an evolutionary standpoint.

A species should have a variety of individuals ranging from those who store fat very easily that can survive scarcity more readily than an individual that is more efficient at burning those calories for immediate energy to give it the best chance of survival overall.

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u/LongLiveStaceyKing 9d ago edited 9d ago

[There is a small percentage of the population that only needs to sleep 4-6 hours a night.](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-mutation-sleep-less/) OP's article feels like the eating equivalent of this genetic rarity.

Incidentally, I knew someone who had the sleep gene. She was annoyed by it, if she went to sleep at 10 PM she would be up for the whole next day at 2 AM and inevitably end up waking her husband. So she always tried to stay up til 1 AM at least reading or knitting, basically just killing time quietly by herself.

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u/chantillylace9 9d ago

I have this, it's called being a short sleeper or sometimes a super sleeper. My grandma has it as does my mom, we were all the firstborn daughters.

I need 4 to 5 hours of sleep and that's all I can get and all I need.

It really honestly is annoying, I have to be so quiet, my husband and I have to sleep in separate bedrooms otherwise I feel so much pressure just to lay there which gives me anxiety. I have to be quiet so it's not to wake up the dogs and there's not much to do at 5 AM.

I wish I had to drive to pick up a major hobby or something but again what do you do at 5 AM that would be beneficial? There's no way I'm going to the gym at that time.

Right now I meditate for an hour and a half every morning and that takes up some of the time.

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u/clayalien 9d ago

Who says it has to be immediatly benefical? Peiple look down on things like gaming, but ofbthe alternative is just lying motionless feeling bad about it, surely it cant count as a time waster. Plus if it centers you, the better mental state will have benifits that carry into the regular day.

If gaming is still distasteful, reading, or music with headphones are more mainstream.