關於睡眠你有必要知道的十件事(上)

We all do it—from the day we're born to the day we die—and it's one of those things that we just don't think that much about. By the end of our lives, we'll have spent about a third of our time on this Earth asleep. According to Thomas Edison, that's a huge waste of time.

我們每天都要睡覺，從出生那天起直到死去，對此我們並沒有思考太多。直到生命終結，我們把一生1/3的時間全部花在了睡眠上。托馬斯·愛迪生不無感慨地說："這實在是太浪費時間了。"

All animals require sleep to function. Whether we're talking about humans that think they need eight hours to be at the top of their game or a giraffe that only needs a little less than two hours a day, sleep is a really weird thing.

所有的動物都需要睡眠，身體纔會運轉。不管我們談論的是睡眠時間最長（長達8小時）的人類還是每天只需要不到2小時睡眠的長頸鹿，無可否認，睡眠的確是件非常怪異的事情。

p Paralysis Is The Root Of Many Legends

10.睡眠癱瘓是許多神話故事的根源

Sleep paralysis happens when people wake up unable to move, blurring the line between the dream world and the conscious world. Most of the time, people suffering from an episode wake with the feeling that they're absolutely not alone; some people even claim to see disturbing or demonic figures in the room. Those that frequently suffer from it can be visited by the same figure night after night. Disorders that interfere with normal sleep patterns, such as narcolepsy, can make sleep paralysis episodes much more frequent.

當人們醒來發現自己的身體不能動彈的時候睡眠麻痹就出現了，模糊了幻夢和現實的界限。大多數的時候，人們會在睡夢中突然醒來，感覺他們不是獨自一人；一些人甚至說在房間裏看到了討厭的人或者鬼怪。那些經常出現這種幻覺的人夜夜都會被同樣的影像驚擾。 人的正常睡眠模式受到干擾出現混亂，比如說嗜睡症，睡眠麻痹的發作就會更加頻繁。

We've long known about the phenomenon, and world mythology has some pretty creepy explanations for it. The incubus and the succubus are pretty familiar European tales, but there are plenty of more obscure ones, too. In Brazil, the nighttime visitor is a pink dolphin by day and a seductress by night. In Newfoundland, it's the "Old Hag" that's holding the victim paralyzed. In Japan, the paralysis is caused by a nighttime visitation from an evil monk who binds his victims with an iron rope. In the Caribbean, the spirits that strangle people in the dead of night are the souls of babies who died before being baptized. And in some areas of Africa, sleep paralysis is thought to be the work of zombies.

很久以前，我們就已經知道了這種現象，世界神話故事也對它做出了驚悚的解釋。歐洲神話故事裏夢魘和女妖是人們熟知的，但是還有更多與此相關的無名故事：在巴西，那個夢中人在白天是一隻粉色的海豚，在晚上就變成了一個誘惑人的妖女；在紐芬蘭，是"老巫婆"讓人癱瘓不起。在日本，那個夜訪者是一個惡和尚，他用鐵繩把人捆住，所以人才癱瘓不能動彈；在加勒比海地區，夜深人靜之時勒住人們的鬼魂是未經洗禮就死去的嬰孩的魂魄；而且，在非洲一些地區，人們認爲睡眠癱瘓是殭屍的"傑作"。

Sleep paralysis can also be blamed for something else—the ideas many people have about alien abductions. A lot of people who claim to have been abducted during the night report symptoms very similar to other instances of sleep paralysis, such as a feeling of wakefulness and seeing something foreign and bizarre in the room.

睡眠癱瘓還可以歸咎於其他原因——許多人都有被外星人綁架的想法。很多聲稱自己在晚上被綁架的人報告的情況和睡眠癱瘓的一些症狀非常相似，比如說感覺自己醒着看見房間裏有陌生又怪異的東西。

pwalking Is Evolving

9.夢遊症不斷升級

Back in the day, the most we had to worry about was getting up in the middle of the night and wandering out to the barn or down the street. Now, however, our nighttime activities are evolving with our daytime ones. "Sleep-texting" and "sleep-emailing" now happen right alongside sleepwalking. So if you get some bizarre correspondence from someone in the middle of the night and they say that they can't remember it the next day, there's a chance they're telling the truth.

一天裏我們最擔心的事就是半夜裏起牀然後跑到穀倉裏或者大街上游蕩。然而，如今我們的夜間活動不斷升級，甚至摻雜了白天的活動。現在人們除了夢遊之外，還會在睡夢中發短信和發郵件。所以，如果你在三更半夜收到別人的奇怪短信，第二天他們說自己完全不記得這件事了，他們很有可能說的是實話。

According to professors at the New York University's College of Dentistry, the act of texting and of answering an alert on our phones has become so ingrained in us that it's crossing the boundaries between being asleep and being awake. The kind of messages being sent varies by the sleep-texter; some people send incoherent or just badly spelled messages, and others text as fluently as when they're awake. Some people even have preferred sort of messages they like to send, like inappropriately romantic ones. One of the common outcomes of sleep-texting is embarrassment, regardless of the context of the messages. Stress and exhaustion can increase the likelihood of sleep-texting, but a few simple tricks—like turning your phone off and putting it well out of reach—can help prevent embarrassing messages. It's also thought that sleep-texting—and other similar nighttime activities—can interfere with deep sleep. This can make the sufferer more tired and, in turn, more likely to do it again.

根據紐約大學牙科學院的教授們所說，手機一有提示我們就編輯回覆短信的行爲已經在我們的大腦中根深蒂固，所以在半睡半醒的時候就會"過界"。發出的短信因發信人不同而不同；一些人會發一些不連貫的或者拼寫錯誤百出的短信，而一些人的短信就像在醒着時編輯時那樣流暢。一些人甚至會偏好發一些他們喜歡說的話，比如說不合時宜的浪漫情話。不管短信內容如何，在睡夢中發短信的普遍結果就是造成尷尬。壓力和疲憊會增加睡夢中發短信的可能性，但是一些簡單的把戲——比如把手機關機，把它放在手夠不到的地方——就能成功地阻止你發出尷尬的短信。人們還認爲睡夢中發短信和一些其他類似的夜間活動都會干擾深沉睡眠。這樣在睡夢中發短信的人就會越來越累，反過來，再犯的可能性就會增大。

ting Sheep Absolutely Doesn't Work

8.數綿羊一點作用也沒有

Having trouble sleeping? Chances are, you've gotten some unsolicited advice from colleagues that saw you yawning, and it was probably the hilarious suggestion to start counting sheep. The idea of counting sheep to fall asleep is an ancient one, and it's thought to have its origins in actual sheep. The theory behind it is that shepherds who were watching over their flocks at night would become so concerned about the safety of the animals and the presence of nighttime predators that they would count the sheep over and over again to make sure they were all still there and in one piece. Eventually, the shepherds couldn't keep their eyes open anymore and would fall asleep.

睡眠有障礙？很有可能你從看見你打哈欠的同事那裏得了些主動建議，而且這個建議極有可能是可笑的數綿羊。數綿羊會睡着是個老掉牙的想法，而且這個說法的起源來自真正的羊。背後的故事是這樣子的：在夜裏看守羊羣的牧羊人們非常關心羊羣的安全，擔心晚上會有掠奪者出現，以至於他們把羊數了一遍又一遍以確保它們還在那兒，完好無損。最後，牧羊人們再也睜開不了眼睛，沉沉睡去了。

It's one of those sayings that just kind of stuck. Unfortunately, it's absolutely not going to have the same effect on you as it did on those shepherds. The idea behind counting sheep is that it's going to occupy your mind with a monotonous task. In turn, this should push away panicked thoughts of what you need to do tomorrow or stress over the previous day's events. The problem is that it's too boring, and, even as you're counting, other thoughts will start to intrude. When it comes to visualization, a better idea is imagining something relaxing that takes some brain power to maintain . . . but not a whole lot of it.

它是其中一種非常流行的說法。不幸的是，數綿羊在牧羊人身上起到的效果和在你身上起到的效果完全不同。數綿羊這個辦法是用一項單調的任務佔據你的大腦。這樣的話，就會趕走你對明天的恐懼或者對於過往的憂慮。問題是它實在過於單調乏味，就算你在數綿羊的時候，別的想法也會不由自主地冒出來。想象的時候，最好想些讓人放鬆的事情讓一些大腦力量集中……但是也不用全部都集中起來。

Dangers Of Sleep Deprivation

7.睡眠不足的危險

We've all pulled all-nighters and spent the next day cranky and waiting for the moment we could finally go to bed. That's not what we're talking about, though; long-term, chronic sleep deprivation is downright scary. Go a few days without sleep, and you'll start suffering from hallucinations, high blood pressure, and memory loss—on top of the more short-term effects like being irritable and depressed. Long-term sleep deprivation, voluntary or involuntary, can lead to weight gain, random moments of losing consciousness, and even permanent damage to the immune system. It's not unheard of for people to die after going without sleep for even as little as three days; we hear about sports fans like Jiang Xiaoshan, who tried to stay awake to watch a marathon of football championships.

我們常常熬通宵，第二天情緒暴躁，然後等待着最終能夠上牀睡覺的那一刻。不過，我們談論的不是這個長期習慣性的睡眠不足會造成非常恐怖的後果。連續幾天不睡覺，除了短期影響會變得易怒和壓抑之外，你還會出現幻覺，高血壓和記憶力衰退的症狀。長期睡眠不足，不管有意無意，都會導致體重增加，大腦間歇性失去意識，甚至會對免疫系統造成永久性的損傷。短短三天不睡覺人就死翹翹的新聞我們也不是沒有聽過；比如說運動愛好者蔣小山，每天熬夜看球，一場不落，結果一睡不醒，年僅26歲。

Some people have even tried to channel the weird stuff that happens to them when they're sleep deprived to increase performance elsewhere. Take a look at Jure Robic, a Slovene long-distance cyclist whose technique for winning included simply not sleeping during cross-country marathons. By the end of the race, he'd go from angry and belligerent to seeing wild animals attack, to ditching his bike to confront the shadowy figures he saw lurking around every corner, to being convinced that he's being pursued by people trying to kill him. The hallucinations made Robic push his body even harder and, occasionally, it made his support team take cover in their cars. Robic died in 2010, when he was hit by a car during a training ride.

一些人甚至企圖利用睡眠不足產生的奇怪幻覺來增強自己的表現。看看Jure Robic，一個斯洛文尼亞的遠程自行車車手，他贏的訣竅就是在自行車越野馬拉松比賽中堅持不睡覺。比賽快要結束的時候，他從憤怒好戰一直到出現幻覺，看見野獸攻擊他，他扔下自行車與潛伏在他四周的幻影對峙，直到確信有人想要他命在追殺他。這些幻覺使得Robic的身體爆發出更多的力量，有時候會把他的啦啦隊遠遠地甩在身後。Robic在2010年去世，在一次訓練旅程中他的山地車撞上了一輛汽車，當即死亡。

Sense Of Smell Stops Influencing Us

6.我們的嗅覺不再影響我們

We all know that smoke alarms and fire detectors are basic safety equipment, but you might not know just why they're so important. There's not much that's more distinctive than the smell of smoke, after all, and it seems obvious that you'd be aware of a fire happening pretty quickly. However, our ability to react to smells changes when we're asleep. Unlike sounds, smells won't wake us up.

我們都知道煙霧報警器和火災探測器是基本的安全設備，但是你或許不知道它們爲什麼如此重要。畢竟沒有什麼比煙味更加特殊了，好像我們能夠很快意識到火災的發生是一件再清楚不過的事情。但是，當我們在睡夢中的時候我們的嗅覺出現了變化。氣味，不像聲音，不會將我們叫醒。

In a study conducted by Brown University and published in a journal called Sleep, volunteers were exposed to different types of smells during their sleep cycle. The volunteers showed an absolute lack of response to different smells ranging from peppermint to the same smoke they would have smelled during a house fire. Even when fitted with a chin strap (to force one to breathe through their nose) and exposed to the strongest, most noxious of fumes, there was no reaction once the person moved from the first, lightest stages of sleep into deeper sleep. In comparison, the same study found that sounds were much more capable of pulling a person out of even the deepest sleep.

布朗大學進行了一項研究並將其發表在《睡眠》雜誌上。志願者們在他們的睡眠週期裏被暴露在各種氣味中。志願者們對各種氣味都沒有做出反應，從薄荷味到家中起火時他們能夠聞到的煙味。甚至給他們帶上下巴託（強迫他們通過鼻子呼吸）並給他們聞最刺激最噁心的氣味，一旦人從睡眠第一階段的最淺層睡眠進入到更深沉的睡眠就不會對氣味做出任何反應。相比之下，這個研究發現聲音更能夠把一個人從最深沉的睡眠裏喚醒。

翻譯：高陳影 來源：前十網