There is nothing greater than getting a good night’s sleep. Well, for some people, sleep is unfortunately not in their vocabulary. They call themselves, short sleepers or people that can function without a lot of sleep before them.

In particular, a man by the name of Brad Johnson has taken concern over not sleeping a normal amount of hours. Realizing his siblings deal with the same issue, the concern was brought to a sleep doctor. Once the doctor got a hold of the issue, he was intrigued and did some research.

According to the New York Times, “Dr. Ptacek and his colleagues identified a gene mutation that shows up in every naturally short-sleeping member of Mr. Johnson’s family,” after completing research and taking blood samples from the family members. Being that this was the case, scientists decided to a bit more digging.

They placed the gene into lab mice to find out if the gene really has an effect on sleep. Findings show that “When the scientists took the mutated version of the gene and put it in lab mice, they found that the mice needed about an hour less sleep a day than their siblings that did not have the gene,” according to the New York Times. In turn, proving that the gene has a direct effect on sleep.

With this information, scientists have hopes that they can later on aid people who have sleeping issues.