What is short sleeper syndrome? Why some people, like Barack Obama, only need 6 hours of sleep a night
Short sleeper syndrome is a condition that allows some people to operate on less than six hours of sleep and feel completely fine during the day.
People with short sleeper syndrome sleep 4 to 6 hours per night and still feel well-rested and alert the next day.
Though this rare condition affects roughly one percent of the population, there are a number of well-known people who claim to regularly operate on very little sleep, including Barack Obama, Martha Stewart, and Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter.
Here’s what you need to know about short sleep syndrome, including its symptoms, causes, and treatments.
Understanding short sleeper syndrome
Sleep experts may refer to a person with short sleeper syndrome as a “habitual short sleeper” (HSS) and “natural short sleeper (NSS),” says Paula G. Williams, PhD, associate professor in the department of psychology at University of Utah who has studied short sleepers.
Although approximately 30% of Americans report regular bouts of short sleep, many are not short sleepers from a clinical standpoint since they do not feel well-rested the…
