I’ve always felt that I was possessed of greatness, that I stood out from ordinary scum. As such, when I was young, it seemed certain I would do great things in life. Of course, here I am, mid way through, and I’ve done little. Why? I blame my need for sleep. I probably need 8 1/2 hours at least to be moderately functional and I rarely get that. If I was one of these people who could get by on 6 or less hours, I would probably be king of the world or something by now.

Scientists how now determined that there is a specific gene variation for people who require little sleep.

German scientists have found a gene variant that may be responsible for some people’s short sleeping habits. Their study, published recently in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, centers on a very small percentage of the population thought to be short or light sleepers, people who require only about four to five hours of sleep a night, wake up with energy and don’t require naps or caffeine to get through the day.

This opens up an obvious question. Could normal sleeping individuals undergo some sort of gene therapy that would tweak the appropriate gene(s) to turn them into short sleepers? Could we increase the world’s productivity in one simple step?

Or would tweaking this gene cause people to become enraged cannibals who would actively seek out warm, human flesh for consumption? There’s only one way to find out.