SCIENTISTS have discovered a gene that enables people to need just a few hours’ sleep like Margaret Thatcher.

Those who have it function as well as others who get the recommended seven to nine.

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Former PM Maggie famously got by on four hours a night and other political and business leaders manage on similar amounts.

They include US President Donald Trump, German leader Angela Merkel, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Virgin boss Richard Branson.

By studying a family that needs much less kip than the seven to nine hours average, US neurologists found a gene variant that directly reduces sleep.

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They say the mutation may hold the key to developing drugs to avert dementia, heart disease, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses linked to lack of shut eye.

Senior co- author Prof Louis Ptacek, of the University of California in San Francisco, said: “It is remarkable we know so little about sleep, given the average person spends a third of their lives doing it.

“This research is an exciting new frontier that all-ows us to dissect the different types of neurons that contribute to sleep and wakefulness.”

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