The 4-Hour Sleepers Redefining Human Limits with Ying-Hui Fu of UCSF

Matias and Greg interview Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, is a Professor of Neurology at UCSF and a world leader in the genetics of sleep. Her lab has discovered the first-known genes behind “natural short sleepers”. Her work bridges human genetics and neuroscience to uncover how to modulate sleep for brain health, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How some people thrive on 4–6 hours of sleep with rare genetic mutations
• Why sleep efficiency is more important than total hours slept
• What short sleeper genes reveal about preventing Alzheimer’s and autism
• Why current sleep research tools miss deeper brain activity patterns
• What’s next in sleep science with potential therapies

Credits:

Created by Greg Kubin and Matias Serebrinsky
Host: Matias Serebrinsky & Greg Kubin
Produced by Caitlin Ner & Nico V. Rey

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Theme music by Dorian Love
Additional Music: Distant Daze by Zack Frank