不睡覺超人:一天當做兩天用(圖)

Some 'superheroes' seem able to exist on very little sleep -- are they fooling themselves?

一些“超級英雄”似乎可以每天只睡極少的時間──還是他們在騙自己？

Does it only take five hours of sleep to fuel the juggle? We recently posted about one woman who rises at 5 a.m. and often ends her day at midnight. She needs all that time to squeeze in a day of work and caring for her family.

只睡五個小時就夠補充精力了嗎？本報不久前刊登的一篇文章說，一位女士每天早上5起牀，而午夜之後才上牀睡覺。她確實需要擠出這麼多時間來完成工作、照顧家人。

It's a familiar timeline for many of us. Can't fit everything into your day? Just make the day longer!

我們當中的許多人對這種生活都不算陌生。每天總有搞不完的事？那就讓每一天變長一些吧。

Some superheroes seem to survive this way indefinitely. An ad-agency founder profiled in the latest issue of Inc., Jordan Zimmerman, rises at 3:30 a.m., works out before work, takes three of his four kids to school, works flat-out all day, gets home for dinner and bedtime with the family and then works until midnight. During speeches to college students, he sometimes asks them why they like to sleep late on weekends. 'Why would you sleep when that's your time to live?' he asks. 'Sleeping isn't living. You sleep when you die.'

一些超級英雄似乎可以日復一日地過着這樣的生活。最新一期商業雜誌《Inc.》報導稱，廣告公司聯席創始人喬丹•齊莫爾曼(Jordan Zimmerman)每天早上3點半起牀，先健身，再工作，然後送四個孩子中的三個去上學，接下來再高效完成全天的工作，回家吃晚飯並等家人就寢後再獨自工作到子夜時分。他有時候會在向大學生髮表演講時問他們爲什麼要在週末賴牀不起。他問道：你們爲什麼要把本可以好好活着的時光睡過去？他說，睡覺不是活着，你死了自然會睡了。

In other cases, entire companies assume a no-sleep culture. In James B. Stewart's 2005 book 'DisneyWar,' Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was said to sleep only a few hours every night, reporting to his office by 5 a.m. He sometimes scheduled major meetings for 7 a.m. on Sunday, Mr. Stewart reported. Not surprisingly, Mr. Katzenberg insisted that all the meeting rooms be stocked with Diet Coke.

在其他案例中，整個公司界都在鼓吹不睡覺文化。作家詹姆斯•B•斯圖爾特(James B. Stewart)在2005年出版的《迪斯尼戰爭》(DisneyWar)中寫道，迪士尼製片公司掌門人傑弗瑞•卡森伯格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)每天就睡兩三個小時，早上5點就現身辦公室了。斯圖爾特說卡森伯格有時候會在週日早7點安排開大會。卡森伯格堅持將所有的會議室都放上健怡可樂，這一點也就不足爲奇了。

People now sleep about 20% less than they did a century ago, the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation estimates. But as I have written, most people need seven to nine hours of sleep. Without it, we snack or drink caffeine or exercise to compensate. And we get sleepy. The foundation's 2008 poll of 1,000 Americans found 36% are drowsy or fall asleep when they are driving; 29% become very sleepy at work, and 20% have lost interest in sex because they are just too tired. Researchers blamed part of the problem on overlong work hours.

非營利機構美國國家睡眠基金會(National Sleep Foundation)估算，人們現在的睡眠時間比100年前少了約20%。不過，就像我曾經寫過的那樣，大多數人每天需要睡七到九個小時。如果睡眠不足，我們通過吃零食、喝咖啡因飲料或運動來強打精神。但我們還是會昏昏欲睡。該基金會2008年針對1000名美國人的調查發現，36%的人在開車時犯困或睡着，29%的人在上班時瞌睡得厲害，還有20%的人會因爲太累而變得“性趣”全無。研究人員認爲超時工作是造成人們睡眠不足的原因之一。

Readers, are you one of these high-energy, no-sleep jugglers? Can some people actually function this way indefinitely, leaving the rest of us lagging behind the evolutionary curve?

各位讀者，你也是這種精力充沛的不睡覺超人嗎？這種人是否能夠永遠這麼幾乎不停工地運轉，將我們這些凡夫俗子在進化進程中遠遠甩在身後？