[15] Other common traits include outgoing personality, high productiveness, lower body mass index than average (possibly due to faster metabolism), higher resilience and heightened pain tolerance.

A study done in 2001 showed that natural short sleepers are more prone to subclinical hypomania,[25] a temporary mental state most common during adolescence characterized by racing thoughts, abnormally high focus on goal-directed activities, unusually euphoric mood, and a perceptual innecessity for sleep.

[26] Early research, particularly from the lab of Ying-Hui Fu, named several mutations as causing heritable short sleep in studied families.

The largest non-pathogenic genetic effect on sleep duration found to date is a change of 2.44[32] or 3.24[33] minutes associated with variation in the PAX8 gene.

[45][46][47] For some unknown reason, individuals with this condition (and their associated mutations) might be genetically protected against neurodegenerative disorders, mainly those that cause dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease.