People I’ve known who don’t need sleep.

It might come as a surprise to some, but such people do indeed exist. Or maybe I should rephrase that by saying they get by just fine on minimal sleep.

I know several, and it’s both a blessing and a curse for them.

One guy I know only sleeps two, maybe three hours or so a day. Sleeping in to him is four hours of sleep. Then he’s up and doing what he wants. He reads. He writes. He watches TV. He picks up degrees and certificates in things that interest him. He goes outside turns on the flood lights and gardens or works on the house.

He’s one of the smartest, most well-read men I’ve ever known.

Now for the downside.

His children are just like him. When he’s watching TV, they’re making the popcorn and enjoying it with him. They’re outside playing under the floods or gardening with him. They play games.

Notice I said nothing about his wife.

She warped out long ago. Everyone is still friends, and Mom doesn’t live that far away and is an active part of their lives, but while he and kids were up and about, she was desperately trying to stitch a full night’s rest together.

The biggest problem must be is that it’s kind of a lonely existence. Unless their spouse has the same ability or curse (depending on how you look at it), life gets rather lonely for them or involves a lot of adapting on both parts.

There’s a name for this condition. It’s called “Short Sleepers Syndrome” (no kidding). Basically. it describes a person who sleeps less than 6 (often times less that 4) hours a day and gets by just fine. In 2019, scientists identified a gene that might cause this. The study went on to say that it’s rather common with at least 1 in every 25,000 people having this gene and ability.

While not exactly a guy who could get by on minimal sleep, I knew another man who spent his entire life working nights for the railroad. That meant he slept during the day. His wife got herself on the same sleep cycle and when he retired forty years later, they discovered they couldn’t make the switch back to how the rest of the world lived.

They’d long before built a higher fence than normal around their house and yard, installed floods and everyone knew that they lived a vampiric existence and blew it off. This old couple just continued as they had before,

And they had the quietest and safest block in town.

That said, I’m not counted among the chosen or cursed few. But I’d be prolific as heck if I need little sleep.

I’d have time to churn out three or four novels in a few months.

I’d have the time to be a prolific podcaster.

My leaves would all be racked.

My garage would be showroom ready.

And I’d build that backyard observatory I’ve always wanted. Not a shed observatory, but one with a dome and a telescope that would rival most anything at Mt. Wilson. I’d find a 10-inch antique Clark telescope and install it. That would be my scope to power across the heavens with. It was in the movie Contact that the joke was made that Vampires had the perfect lifestyle to be astronomers. Well, so do the folks with Short Sleep Syndrome.

But if I had that ability, I’d probably end up like the guy I know and not have all that many relationships.

Still, I often times go to bed after midnight and I’m up around five every morning and I can keep going just fine for a week or two. The excuse I use is that “I’ll get all the sleep I need when I’d dead.”

But I know that’s a lie.

One reason is the excuse is the lie. Sooner or later, I run out of gas and spend almost ten hours asleep.

And I know as a fact, that when I die, the resurrection will happen exactly 5 minutes later, and I’ll be in the awkward position of looking for the snooze button on the alarm clock of Eternity.

A story from CNN about a family that shares this trait.