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THE amount of deep sleep you get each night is at least partly down to your genes, according to a study of 14 students. The seven students with the “slumber gene” averaged 50 per cent more deep sleep per night than the others. The finding could lead to new ways of treating sleep disorders.

According to Hans-Peter Landolt, head of the team at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, this is the first research to show a direct link between people’s different deep-sleep patterns and variation in their genes.

The slumber gene is one variant of the gene for the enzyme…

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