Who was this nurse who slept very little?

February 6, 2012 6:55 PM

Help me find an account of a retired nurse who required very little sleep. The first night in a sleep lab, she couldn't fall asleep at all. The next night, she slept some absurdly short time (I seem to recall seventeen minutes). She appeared alert and performed well on both days and claimed that she habitually slept very little her entire life. I think I read her story in a pop-science publication five to fifteen years ago.
posted by d. z. wang to Science & Nature (4 answers total)

There was a mention of a nurse who slept very little and was in fact having small hallucinations due to lack of sleep, in Fire in The Brain, probably not the right case, but it reminded me of it so I thought I'd take a stab at it.
posted by The otter lady at 7:06 PM on February 6, 2012

Response by poster: Sorry, but no, definitely not because the interesting feature of this nurse's insomnia was that she appeared to suffer no ill effects from it.
posted by d. z. wang at 7:13 PM on February 6, 2012

There was this article on MeFi a few months back that sounds similar: The Sleepless Elite. Do any of the people described there ring a bell? Or maybe you can use it to help with some search terms?
posted by daelin at 7:38 PM on February 6, 2012

I couldn't find the case you're looking for, but I did find several people who have similar symptoms that might lead you to the correct person.

Thai Ngoc
Al Herpin
Rhett Lamb
Fyodor Nesterchuk
posted by gregr at 8:33 PM on February 6, 2012