'Short sleepers' only need four hours of sleep a night

Did you know there are some very lucky people in the world who can get by on only four hours of sleep at night without feeling sleep-deprived?

"Good Morning America" introduced us to a father and daughter who only need a few hours of sleep at night to feel rested.
Source: ABC / "Good Morning America"

'I'm living my life, rather than sleeping it.'
'Not an X-man, just, I feel I'm kinda lucky.'
'Thanks to a genetic mutation, these real-life super-humans simply compress the brain's sleep cycles into half the time.'
Source: ABC / "Good Morning America"

These people are called short-sleepers, and a clinical psychologist who blogged for The Huffington Post says short-sleepers just naturally wake up after a few hours of sleep.
Source: Huffington Post

Many famous faces have claimed they only need a few hours of zzzz's to face the day...

...including Donald Trump, Martha Stewart and Madonna.
Donald Trump: Wikimedia Commons / David Shankbone
Martha Stewart: Wikimedia Commons / David Shankbone
Madonna: Wikimedia Commons / David Shankbone

But even though they claim they can get by on a few hours, that doesn't necessarily make them short-sleepers.

The Wall Street Journal says only about 1 percent of the world's population are genuine short-sleepers.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Journal also reports that short-sleepers don't seem to suffer any negative health effects from nodding off for only a few hours.