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A paper just out in the November issue of Molecular Psychiatry identifies a gene that appears to be associated with reduced sleep. Some are calling it the “Thatcher Gene” after Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister from 1979 to 1990 who was apparently quite a light sleeper. Researchers at Ludwig-Maximillians University in Germany used sleep surveys and gene profiles of more than 4,000 Europeans from seven nations to nail down the gene, known as ABCC9.