Scientists call people like Osmond natural short sleepers, a rare group that makes up less than one percent of the population. Since that early discovery, Fu and her colleagues have reported mutations across several genes associated with natural short sleep. Natural short sleepers appear to move through these systems differently from the wider population. Natural Short Sleep Differs From Sleep DeprivationNatural short sleepers do not force themselves to remain awake. Natural short sleepers represent an inherited exception in which several rare gene variants alter sleep duration and the brain systems that control waking.