Gene Cuts Need for Sleep

A Drug for Less Sleep?

So what would happen if someone made a drug that did exactly the same thing as the DEC2 mutation?

"If I had a drug that gave a similar effect as DEC2, it is possible it would be pretty safe because the humans who carry it are safe with the mutation," Fu says.

Tafti notes that before anyone tries to make a DEC2-like drug, future research will identify more proteins that affect sleep need.

"Then probably we can act on this pathway and increase sleep or reduce sleep, or make sleep more intense, or improve recovery from sleep deprivation. But that will be for the next decades, not this one," he says.

The Fu study, and an editorial by Tafti and colleague Hyun Hor, MD, appear in the Aug. 14 issue of the journal Science.