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，對此我們并沒有思考太多。直到生命終結(jié)，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(shí)在是太浪費(fèi)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，身體才會運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。不管我們談?wù)摰氖撬邥r間最長（長達(dá)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(rèn)，睡眠的確是件非常怪異的事情。
10.Sleep 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(dāng)人們醒來發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的身體不能動彈的時候睡眠麻痹就出現(xiàn)了，模糊了幻夢和現(xiàn)實(shí)的界限。大多數(shù)的時候，人們會在睡夢中突然醒來，感覺他們不是獨(dú)自一人；一些人甚至說在房間里看到了討厭的人或者鬼怪。那些經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)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(xiàn)混亂，比如說嗜睡癥，睡眠麻痹的發(fā)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(jīng)知道了這種現(xiàn)象，世界神話故事也對它做出了驚悚的解釋。歐洲神話故事里夢魘和女妖是人們熟知的，但是還有更多與此相關(guān)的無名故事：在巴西，那個夢中人在白天是一只粉色的海豚，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(qū)，夜深人靜之時勒住人們的鬼魂是未經(jīng)洗禮就死去的嬰孩的魂魄；而且，在非洲一些地區(qū)，人們認(rèn)為睡眠癱瘓是僵尸的"杰作"。
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于其他原因——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癥狀非常相似，比如說感覺自己醒著看見房間里有陌生又怪異的東西。
9.Sleepwalking Is Evolving
9.夢游癥不斷升級
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.
一天里我們最擔(dān)心的事就是半夜里起床然后跑到谷倉里或者大街上游蕩。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(xiàn)在人們除了夢游之外，還會在睡夢中發(fā)短信和發(fā)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(shí)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(jù)紐約大學(xué)牙科學(xué)院的教授們所說，手機(jī)一有提示我們就編輯回復(fù)短信的行為已經(jīng)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(fā)出的短信因發(fā)信人不同而不同；一些人會發(fā)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著時編輯時那樣流暢。一些人甚至?xí)冒l(fā)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(nèi)容如何，在睡夢中發(fā)短信的普遍結(jié)果就是造成尷尬。壓力和疲憊會增加睡夢中發(fā)短信的可能性，但是一些簡單的把戲——比如把手機(jī)關(guān)機(jī)，把它放在手夠不到的地方——就能成功地阻止你發(fā)出尷尬的短信。人們還認(rèn)為睡夢中發(fā)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(fā)短信的人就會越來越累，反過來，再犯的可能性就會增大。
8.Counting Sheep Absolutely Doesn't Work
8.數(shù)綿羊一點(diǎn)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里得了些主動建議，而且這個建議極有可能是可笑的數(shù)綿羊。數(shù)綿羊會睡著是個老掉牙的想法，而且這個說法的起源來自真正的羊。背后的故事是這樣子的：在夜里看守羊群的牧羊人們非常關(guān)心羊群的安全，擔(dān)心晚上會有掠奪者出現(xiàn)，以至于他們把羊數(shù)了一遍又一遍以確保它們還在那兒，完好無損。最后，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(shù)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(shù)綿羊這個辦法是用一項單調(diào)的任務(wù)占據(jù)你的大腦。這樣的話，就會趕走你對明天的恐懼或者對于過往的憂慮。問題是它實(shí)在過于單調(diào)乏味，就算你在數(shù)綿羊的時候，別的想法也會不由自主地冒出來。想象的時候，最好想些讓人放松的事情讓一些大腦力量集中……但是也不用全部都集中起來。
7.The 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，然后等待著最終能夠上床睡覺的那一刻。不過，我們談?wù)摰牟皇沁@個長期習(xí)慣性的睡眠不足會造成非常恐怖的后果。連續(xù)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(xiàn)幻覺，高血壓和記憶力衰退的癥狀。長期睡眠不足，不管有意無意，都會導(dǎo)致體重增加，大腦間歇性失去意識，甚至?xí)γ庖呦到y(tǒng)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(yùn)動愛好者蔣小山，每天熬夜看球，一場不落，結(jié)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(chǎn)生的奇怪幻覺來增強(qiáng)自己的表現(xiàn)?？纯碕ure Robic，一個斯洛文尼亞的遠(yuǎn)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(jié)束的時候，他從憤怒好戰(zhàn)一直到出現(xiàn)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(fā)出更多的力量，有時候會把他的啦啦隊遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地甩在身后。Robic在2010年去世，在一次訓(xùn)練旅程中他的山地車撞上了一輛汽車，當(dāng)即死亡。
6.Our 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(zāi)探測器是基本的安全設(shè)備，但是你或許不知道它們?yōu)槭裁慈绱酥匾．吘箾]有什么比煙味更加特殊了，好像我們能夠很快意識到火災(zāi)的發(fā)生是一件再清楚不過的事情。但是，當(dāng)我們在睡夢中的時候我們的嗅覺出現(xiàn)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(xué)進(jìn)行了一項研究并將其發(fā)表在《睡眠》雜志上。志愿者們在他們的睡眠周期里被暴露在各種氣味中。志愿者們對各種氣味都沒有做出反應(yīng)，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托（強(qiáng)迫他們通過鼻子呼吸）并給他們聞最刺激最惡心的氣味，一旦人從睡眠第一階段的最淺層睡眠進(jìn)入到更深沉的睡眠就不會對氣味做出任何反應(yīng)。相比之下，這個研究發(fā)現(xiàn)聲音更能夠把一個人從最深沉的睡眠里喚醒。
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