評論
打印
It's 4 a.m. , and the big test is in eight hours, followed by a piano recital.
現在是凌晨四點，八小時之后你有一場重要的考試，接著還有一場鋼琴獨奏會。
You've been studying and playing for days, but you still don't feel ready for either.
你已經連日學習和苦練鋼琴，但你仍覺得你還未準備好。
So, what can you do?
那么你能做些什么呢？
Well, you can drink another cup of coffee and spend the next few hours cramming and practicing,
你可以再喝一杯咖啡，并在僅剩的一點時間里繼續奮戰，
but believe it or not, you might be better off closing the books, putting away the music, and going to sleep.
但是你也許不相信，如果你關上書本，停止練習并去睡一覺，效果會更好。
Sleep occupies nearly a third of our lives, but many of us give surprisingly little attention and care to it.
睡眠幾乎占據了我們生命的三分之一，可令人驚訝的是，許多人并不關心他們的睡眠。
This neglect is often the result of a major misunderstanding.
人們對睡眠的忽視往往是來自于一個很大的誤解。
Sleep isn't lost time, or just a way to rest when all our important work is done.
睡覺并不是浪費時間，睡眠也不僅僅是工作后的休息。
Instead, it's a critical function, during which your body balances and regulates its vital systems,
相反，睡眠是一個很關鍵的過程，睡眠期間，你的身體會對各系統進行調節，
affecting respiration and regulating everything from circulation to growth and immune response.
你的呼吸系統會受到影響，血液循環系統、免疫系統與身體的成長都會受到影響。
That's great, but you can worry about all those things after this test, right?
聽起來很棒，但你可以等考完試以后再來擔心睡眠，對吧？
Well, not so fast.
先別這么快下結論。
It turns out that sleep is also crucial for your brain,
原來睡眠對你的大腦也至關重要，
with a fifth of your body's circulatory blood being channeled to it as you drift off.
在你進入夢鄉的時候，你身體里五分之一的血液都會流入到你的大腦。
And what goes on in your brain while you sleep is an intensely active period of restructuring that's crucial for how our memory works.
你睡覺的時間正是你的大腦內部重新調整組合的時間，這個階段對我們的記憶功能十分重要。
