For as long as Brad Johnson can remember, he has never been able to sleep more than six hours a night. Most nights, he sleeps even less. Johnson, 63, always wakes without an alarm clock, feeling rested and ready for the day.
He’s not the only one in his family like this. Two of his seven siblings also are natural short sleepers. He suspects that their father was one, too.
At least 15 years ago, he said, one of his brothers reached out to a sleep doctor at the University of Utah, who took an interest in the family, collecting blood samples and conducting interviews at a reunion.