In what may well turn out to be one of the most imperative and just-in-time discovery in the field of medical science, with special reference to sleep related disorders like fragmented sleep, sleep apnea and more, scientists have unveiled a gene which they aver holds deep association with the furtive of an internal alarm clock. The mysterious internal alarm clock in humans permits a number of individuals to get by after no more than four hours of night’s sleep.

During the research, which was carried out by researchers from Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians University, the researchers successfully discovered the gene, dubbed ABCC9, which apparently has enough potential of reducing the duration of time consumed by people while having a sleep at night. Earlier, researchers had linked the same gene to diabetes and various critical forms of heart diseases.

In the recent study, the scientists asserted that their findings were based on a recent survey conducted all over Europe, which witnessed in excess of 4,000 individuals from seven nations filling out a questionnaire meant for monitoring their habits related to sleep.

Later, the researchers studied answers given by the partakers of the studied and correlated them with the participants’ genes. The findings made it clear individuals who are having two copies of ABCC9, or a common deviation of ABCC9, tend to sleep for "significantly shorter" duration of time as compared to people having two copies of some other variant.

While expressing happiness regarding the findings of her study, the lead author of the study, Karla Allebrandt claimed: “Apparently the relationships of sleep duration with other conditions such as heart disease and diabetes can be in part explained by an underlying common molecular mechanism”.

The findings are likely to explain the reason why some people, generally known as light sleepers, are able to stay fresh and healthy by maintaining just four hours of sleep a night.