Why Even 4 Hours of Sleep is Not Enough

I read an article, titled “Why even 4 hours of sleep is enough” from the Hindustan Times that reported about the ABCC9 Gene.

To make a long story short, the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich identified the ABCC9 gene which can reduce the length of time we sleep. They even modified the genes within fruit flies and successfully shortened the time for which the flies slept. Granted, I’m not sure what that means but it reads like a free, organic, and everlasting Red Bull to me.

Our team has been extremely stretched ever since we announced our event last week. I know sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor, but I have been sleeping at an average of 4 hours and 17 minutes every night since last week. I’m counting for the fun of it but naturally, the article caught my attention since 4 hours is near to my calculated figure. Besides Startup Asia and daily operations of our blog, we’re also working on a major change which we hope we can announce really soon.

Anyways, I’m sure investors would be ecstatic if the ABCC9 genes were in-built within the entrepreneurs they invested in. That would allow them (naturally) to sleep less and work more. For entrepreneurs, the ABCC9 sounds like a sound plan too. As my friend Zaki, founder of Game Ventures, said he would like to have two of the ABCC9 genes.

Perhaps the ABBC9 should be sold as a form of canned drink to replace the not-so-effective coffee or Red Bull. It isn’t effective because my body — and the bodies of other perpetual midnight oil burners — got so used to caffeine. (And if the ABBC9 proves to work like a “steroid”, I would love to secretly inject them on my team members too.)

The past two weeks have been tough for our team — working more than 12 hours a day is certain and this will continue for sure. We’re not at all complaining. In fact, we see it as a chance for us to step up our gear and see how much we can do with so little resources. It’s fun and fulfilling as we continue to push tech in Asia forward with our small ninja team, no matter how small the steps are.

While working hard, we also understand that work never ends — Even if we were to limit our sleep to 4 hours each day. So as we work hard to tell stories on behalf of tech in Asia, we also ensure we get adequate sleep (subjective), fluid, and exercise to ensure we can continue this marathon in the long run.