鬧鐘響了 再貪睡一會有益身體健康嗎大綱

Lots of people rely on the beep-beep-beep of an alarm clock. And while some start the morning with a cheerful press of the off button and a catlike stretch, others wake after a whack of the snooze button and another 10 minutes of rest. But do those extra few minutes help? One expert, David Dinges, chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, awakens the controversy.

很多人起牀都要依賴鬧鐘鈴響的嗶嗶聲。雖然有些人的早晨是從樂呵呵地按下“關閉”鍵然後伸個懶腰開始的，另一些人則是猛按“小睡”鍵、接着再躺10分鐘後才醒來的。但多睡這幾分鐘真的管用嗎？賓夕法尼亞大學佩雷爾曼醫學院(University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine)精神病學部睡眠與生物鐘學分部(Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry)主管、睡眠專家戴維·丁格斯(David Dinges)引發了人們對這個話題的爭論。

Efficient sleep

有效睡眠

Most sleep experts agree that seven to eight hours of shut-eye per night is optimal for adults. In a 2007 paper based on the annual American Time Use Survey, Dr. Dinges found 32.6% of Americans self-reported that they got less than 7.5 hours by going to bed late, then relied on alarm clocks to wake up. Surprisingly, the result isn't a population of groggy people, but one that is getting more efficient sleep.

大多數睡眠專家都認爲，每晚七到八個小時的睡眠對成年人來說是最理想的。在2007年一份基於年度“美國人時間使用調查”(American Time Use Survey)的論文中，丁格斯博士指出，有32.6%的美國人自稱他們上牀睡覺時間晚，每天只有不到7.5個小時的睡眠，然後得靠鬧鐘把他們叫醒。令人驚訝的是，這麼做的結果並非導致這些人整天睡不醒、頭昏眼花，而是讓他們獲得了更多的有效睡眠。

'Assuming you're healthy, you fall asleep faster when you're sleep deprived,' Dr. Dinges says. 'You move less, you're harder to awaken, you sleep more intensely.' Eventually the body will reset itself to a healthy state of normal sleep patterns, in what is called the homeostatic response. 'This is all fine, but it only works when you have time to recover with longer sleep every few days, which most people don't,' Dr. Dinges says.

丁格斯博士說：“假設你很健康，當你睡眠不足的時候你就會更快地入睡。你翻動得更少了，更難醒過來，睡得也更沉了。”最終，你的身體會重新調整至正常睡眠模式的健康狀態，這個過程被稱爲體內平衡反應。丁格斯博士說，“這些都沒問題，但它只會在你有時間恢復的情況下──也就是你每隔幾天就多睡會兒──纔會起作用，而這個大多數人都做不到。”

You Snooze, You Win

再小睡一會兒，你贏了

Heavy sleepers and sleep-deprived people use the alarm clock to terminate sleep unnaturally, says Dr. Dinges. When people wake up on their own it feels better, though few people do this, according to data from 136,000 Americans from 2003 to 2012 in the time-use survey.

丁格斯博士說，深度睡眠者和睡眠不足人羣都在用鬧鐘終結睡眠，這並不合乎自然規律。當人們睡到自然醒再起牀時，他們的感覺纔會更棒。但據2003 年至2012年“美國人時間使用調查”的數據顯示，能夠做到這一點的人寥寥無幾。該調查的數據採集來自136,000名美國人。

Most people aren't getting more sleep when they snooze -- just more time to awaken, Dr. Dinges says. 'It feels like a blissful dream state because the closer you get to wakening, the more rapid-eye movement and dreams occur,' he explains. 'Snoozing is not a great evil. The extra 10 minutes you get by snoozing can actually help to gently awaken the mind, rather than jolt it back to wakefulness,' he says.

丁格斯博士說，大多數人在“再小睡一會兒”的時候都無法獲得更多的睡眠──只是徒增了醒過來的時間。他解釋稱：“那就像一個幸福的夢境狀態，因爲你越臨近醒來，就會進行越多的快速眼動，做的夢也越多。再睡一會兒也不是個大惡習。你通過賴牀貪睡爭取到的這額外10分鐘其實會有助於讓頭腦輕緩地醒過來，而不是讓它猛地一下子清醒過來。”

Aging Out

年紀大了，貪睡少了

As people age, studies show that they need less sleep and can awaken alert more rapidly, Dr. Dinges' says. So even snooze-addicts can look forward to natural sleep patterns returning as they get older. 'When I was in my 20s, I'd use multiple alarm clocks and snooze away, but now I'm in my mid-60s, so I don't need that much sleep anymore,' he says. He very rarely hits the snooze button, he says.

丁格斯博士說，研究表明，隨着人們年歲增高，他們所需的睡眠時間會越來越少，而且會更快地警醒過來。所以就算是嗜愛鬧鈴響後小睡的人在他們老去的時候也能期望自然睡眠模式的迴歸。他還說：“在我20多歲的時候，我得用上多個鬧鐘，可還是會瞌睡過去。但現在我都60多了，所以不再需要那麼多的睡眠了。”丁格斯博士稱，如今他很少會去按“小睡”鍵。

The Prime-Time Cure

黃金時段療法

In an ideal world, Dr. Dinges says, people would go to sleep a little bit earlier and not use an alarm clock at all. He would like to see TV networks schedule prime-time shows earlier. He encourages his patients to go to bed when they are tired, not when they fall asleep on the couch beside Jimmy Kimmel. 'In studies in our lab, we've seen sleep restriction lead to weight gain,' he says. 'Other studies have shown a connection between reduced sleep time and morbidity illness such as diabetes and heart disease.'

丁格斯博士說，在一個理想的世界中，人們應該稍微早點兒上牀睡覺，而且根本不用鬧鐘。他希望能看到這一幕：電視臺把黃金時段播出的節目往前排一排。他鼓勵自己的病人在累了的時候就上牀睡覺，不要等到吉米·坎摩爾(Jimmy Kimmel)的晚間節目開演、自己卻在沙發上睡着的時候再爬上牀去。他說：“在我們實驗室的一些研究中，我們已經發現，睡眠不足會導致體重增加。其他的一些研究則已顯示出在睡眠時間減少與諸如糖尿病、心臟病這類疾病發病率之間的關聯。”

Faking the brain into thinking it is getting more sleep by snoozing is a temporary cure, but it doesn't help in the long term. 'You'd be better off getting that extra 10 to 20 minutes of real sleep rather than doing that dance with the alarm clock,' says Dr. Dinges.

騙大腦說，再睡一會兒能讓自己獲得更多的睡眠，短期內可能是個方法，但從長期看來沒什麼用。丁格斯博士說：“踏踏實實多睡上10到20分鐘，而不是在鬧鐘響後再翻來覆去折騰好一會兒，你的狀況纔會變得更好。”