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A daytime nap is good for the brain
睡午覺可以延緩大腦萎縮
Regularly finding time for a little snooze is good for our brain and helps keep it bigger for longer, say University College London researchers.
英國倫敦大學學院的研究人員指出，定期午睡對大腦有好處，能延緩大腦萎縮。
The team showed nappers' brains were 15 cubic centimetres (0.9 cubic inches) larger - equivalent to delaying ageing by between three and six years.
該研究團隊發現，有午睡習慣的人的大腦比不午睡的人的大腦要大出15立方厘米，相當于延緩衰老三至六年。
However, the scientists recommend keeping naps to less than half an hour.
然而，科學家建議，午睡不要超過半小時。
The brain naturally shrinks with age, but whether naps could help prevent diseases like Alzheimer's will still need extra research.
隨著年齡增大，大腦會自然地萎縮，但是午睡能否預防阿爾茨海默癥等疾病仍需要更多研究。
Overall brain health is important for protecting against dementia and the condition is linked to disturbed sleep.
大腦健康對于預防癡呆癥十分重要，而癡呆癥和睡眠不佳有關。
The researchers suggest poor sleep is damaging the brain over time by causing inflammation and affecting the connections between brain cells.
研究人員指出，長時間睡不好會損害大腦，導致大腦炎癥，從而影響腦細胞之間的聯系。
"Thus, regular napping could protect against neurodegeneration by compensating for deficient sleep," researcher Valentina Paz said.
研究員瓦倫蒂娜·帕茲說：“因此，定期午睡能彌補睡眠不足，從而預防神經退行性疾病。”
Napping might boost health, but the reverse is also true as your health can leave you so tired you need to nap more.
午睡可能有利于健康，但是反過來，你的身體如果特別累，也會需要更多的小憩。
So the researchers used a clever technique to prove that napping is beneficial.
所以研究人員用了一種巧妙的技術來證明午睡的益處。
They used a gigantic natural experiment based on the DNA. Previous studies have identified 97 snippets of our DNA that either make us more likely to be nappers or to power through the day.
他們采用了基于DNA的超大型自然實驗的數據。先前的研究發現，人類DNA中有97個片段決定你是否喜歡午睡。
So the team took data from 35,000 people, aged 40 to 69, taking part in the UK Biobank project and simply compared those genetic "nappers" and "non-nappers".
因此該團隊抽取了參加英國生物樣本庫計劃的年齡在40歲和69歲之間的3.5萬人的數據，并將天生的午睡者和不午睡者做了比較。
The results, published in the journal Sleep Health, showed a 15 cubic centimetre difference - equivalent to 2.6 to 6.5 years of ageing.
發表在《睡眠健康》期刊上的這項研究結果顯示，二者大腦體積相差了15立方厘米，相當于前者比后者晚衰老2.6至6.5年。
英文來源：BBC
翻譯&編輯：丹妮
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