研究發現 青少年愛睡懶覺是因爲大腦的原因大綱

We're a puritanical society when it comes to sleeping late in the morning. We equate having a lie-in to being a lazy good-for-nothing. teenagers in particular suffer at the hands of such ignorant criticism.

在早晨睡懶覺這個問題上，我們的社會是一個極其嚴格的社會。我們將躺着與懶惰、無所事事劃等號。尤其是青少年，他們更是承受着這種無知批評帶來的痛苦。

The fact is, teens can no more bounce out of bed early in the morning than you can run 100m in 10 seconds.

事實上，青少年早晨不能早起和你無法在10秒鐘內跑完100米是一樣的性質。

We've known for some time that the teenage brain literally "deconstructs", meaning that brain connections are broken, brain rhythms are disrupted and brain centres don't function. Crucial among those lost functions is a broken body clock.

青少年的大腦以“解構”著稱，也就是說他們的腦部連接斷了、大腦節奏被打亂了、腦中心不起作用了。在這些喪失的功能中，最重要的一個就是生物鐘被打亂了。

It's still a 24-hour clock but it's not in sync with day and night. This means teens don't want to go to sleep until after midnight and don't want to wake up until late morning.

生物鐘還是24小時，但卻沒有和白天黑夜同步。這就意味着，青少年到了半夜纔想上牀睡覺，早晨直到睡過了頭纔想起牀。

For virtually all adolescents, the secretion of melatonin (the body clock's sleeping pill) doesn't begin until about 11pm and continues until about 8am.

對幾乎所有的青少年而言，褪黑激素（生物鐘的安眠藥）直到晚上11點左右纔開始分泌，並一直持續到早晨8點左右。

This means that most teenagers simply can't fall asleep until this secretion begins, and find it impossible to wake up until the melatonin turns off.

也就是說，大多數的青少年要到褪黑激素開始分泌才能入睡、直到褪黑激素停止分泌才能醒來。

This fixed pattern of melatonin secretion in teens doesn't normalise until they're in their 20s.

直到20多歲，青少年這種固定的褪黑激素分泌模式纔會開始正常。

So the unique sleep/wake pattern of teenagers is beyond their control.

所以這種獨特的入睡/起牀模式是青少年無法掌控的。

There are serious consequences if teens fail to get adequate sleep. Those who are sleep-deprived – defined as getting less than eight hours per night – are more likely to smoke, drink and take drugs.

若青少年未能獲得充足睡眠，後果將十分嚴重。那些睡眠不足的青少年--定義是每晚睡眠時間少於8小時--更有可能吸菸、喝酒、嗑藥。

With less than nine hours of sleep per night, depression among teens rises significantly.

由於每晚睡眠不足9小時，患抑鬱症的青少年大幅增多。

Research shows around half of teenagers who sleep four hours or less per night feel sad and hopeless, compared to those who sleep longer.

研究表明，與睡眠更久的青少年相比，每晚只睡4個小時或更少時間的青少年中，有一半以上會感到難受、無助。

Teen car crashes, the primary cause of death for this age group, significantly decline when teens obtain more than eight hours of sleep per night.

車禍是青少年死亡的主要原因，當青少年每晚睡眠8小時以上時，車禍率會大大降低。