Today’s Big Story

The Short Sleepers

Millions of people may have a genetic mutation to need just 4–6 hours of sleep instead of 8

I wish I had this … because I routinely stay up too late and then spend the next day dragging and yawning. But a small group of people around the world truly don't need more than four to six hours of sleep a night, thanks to a rare gene.

There’s still much to learn about this small subset of people, but a deeper study of the way their bodies and brains work offers valuable lessons for all of us. Ying-Hui Fu, a neuroscientist and sleep researcher at UC San Francisco, told Axios that these “short sleepers” are a window into what life looks like when you get enough sleep. She's a co-author of the landmark study on short sleepers that identified their unique gene.

As you might already know, a nightly doze plays an important role in a human’s overall health: It enables people to think clearly, function effectively and provides an opportunity for the brain to “wash itself” in cerebrospinal fluid to cleanse it of toxic proteins as we relax in bed. For most of us, that process takes around 8.5 hours, Fu says. We often don't get all of those hours, so our recovery hovers around 90% or lower.

And while it might sound alluring to wake up refreshed after just four hours of sleep, scientists currently believe that genetic factors determine who is and isn’t a short sleeper—so it is not something people can train themselves to do.

Unfortunately, this elite class of short sleepers are often hard to study—in part because, while there are many people who think they don't need lots of sleep, very few naturally function that way, the Wall Street Journal reports. Out of every 100 people who believe they only need five or six hours of sleep a night, only about five people really do.

A Top Hamas Leader Is Killed

The death of Ismail Haniyeh comes as fears of wider war grow

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran after attending the inauguration of the country’s new president, Iran and the militant group said early Wednesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion quickly fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas.

Though Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran, he was based in Qatar, which has hosted Hamas’s political bureau since 2012, after a U.S. request to do so. Since at least May, pressure had been mounting on the U.S. ally to expel members of Hamas if the group continued to reject cease-fire proposals. The Washington Post reported at the time that Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered this message from Washington to Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in April.

The assassination may have “totally changed the dynamic” between Iran-backed proxies and Israel, Firas Maksad, Senior Director for Strategic Outreach at the Middle East Institute told CNN. The consecutive deaths of leaders from Iran-backed groups has been unprecedented and is a potential notch closer to a region-wide conflict, he added. “There’s a great possibility that this will see an orchestrated region-wide campaign that brings the various Iranian-sponsored militias from Iraq, from Yemen, from Lebanon, and maybe even Tehran itself in a direct response.”

U.S. National Debt Tops $35 Trillion

It’s a first and it happened quicker than experts predicted

No one likes debt. But get ready to feel a little less bad about your bills. Because the U.S. national debt has surpassed $35 trillion for the first time. The financial hole is mounting quicker than most economists had predicted. For reference, it first exceeded $34 trillion just 209 days ago—that means it added about $4.5 billion in new debt every day since then.

The proverbial red ink is mounting thanks to factors such as higher interest rates and increased federal spending contributing to the growth. The debt ceiling was suspended until January 2025 following negotiations between President Biden and House Republicans. The leading presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, have said little about the nation’s deficits on the campaign trail, suggesting that the economic problem will only worsen in the coming years. Deep differences between Republicans and Democrats on policy priorities and resistance within both parties to enact cuts to the biggest drivers of the national debt—Social Security and Medicare—have made it difficult to reduce America’s borrowing.

The Congressional Budget Office said last month that the U.S. national debt is poised to top $56 trillion by 2034, as rising spending and interest expenses outpace tax revenue. However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in June that the U.S. debt load remained reasonable given the size of the economy and that she was focused on keeping interest costs stable.

The Death of Personal Checks

As retailers move toward ‘check zero’, here’s what that means for you

Speaking of money, when was the last time you wrote out a check? I can’t remember either. Only 15% of adults said they wrote a few checks a month in 2023, according to a recent report by GoBankingRates. At the time of the late November survey, 46% of the more than 1,000 respondents said they hadn’t written a single check in 2023.

These days, we’d all just rather Venmo, swipe a card or tap our phone, right? In fact, in the years since the pandemic, Americans have fully embraced contactless and digital payment methods, while check writing has steadily declined into near-oblivion. Earlier this month, Target said it would stop accepting checks; and other retailers—ranging from Whole Foods to Old Navy—have already stopped accepting them.

According to Fast Company, checks were a huge part of the U.S. economy only a few decades ago. The Federal Reserve, the U.S.’s central bank, processed 17 billion checks a year back in 2000, compared with 3 billion today. Steven Quinn, an economics professor, told CNBC “the paper check might linger where it began, at the high end—for large one-off payments,” such as charitable donations or real estate transactions. “In this way, checks might hold on for some time.”

The Long Read

The magical in-betweenness—and surprising epidemiological history—of the porch

You get what you give.