考博英语外刊双语阅读丨worry about sleep出自：The Guardian《卫报》

本期导读：昨晚你睡得好吗？当很多人被问到这一问题时，回复的答案都是：不好！根据《2021运动与睡眠白皮书》显示，目前中国有超3亿人存在睡眠障碍，中国成年人失眠发生率高达38.2%。你是“睡眠焦虑”大军中的一员吗，赶快进入今天的外刊双语阅读吧！

Should I worry about how much sleep I’m getting?

题材：健康与生活类

出处：The Guardian《卫报》

[1] Of all the things to worry about in life, sleep may be the most pernicious. Most things you either can directly control (your booze intake, Twitter consumption, exercise regime) or you can’t (pollution, bees dying, malevolent artificial intelligence). But sleep sits right in the middle: even if you feel as if you are giving yourself enough, are you really? Is it the right sort? And then, of course, there’s always the worry that the worrying itself is a problem – by stressing yourself out about shut-eye, are you making things worse?

译文【在生活中需要担心的所有事情里，睡眠可能是最有害的。大多数事情你要么可以直接控制(你的饮酒摄入量、推特消费、锻炼养生法)，要么你不能控制(污染、蜜蜂死亡、恶意的人工智能)。但睡眠恰好位于二者之间：即使你觉得你给了自己足够的睡眠，但是你真的做到了吗？是正确的方式吗？当然，还有一种担心，即担心本身就是一个问题——在睡眠问题上给自己施加压力，是不是让事情变得更糟了?】

[2] First, take a deep breath. To start with the basics: if you are getting anywhere from seven to nine hours a night, you’re probably fine. “Some people can get away with as little as six hours a night, or might need as much as 10, but those are generally extreme cases,” says Jason Carter, dean of Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences. “I would start to get concerned with consistently sleeping less than seven hours a night, and really concerned if it dropped to six or below.”

译文【首先，深吸一口气。从最基本的开始：如果你每晚睡7到9个小时，你可能就没问题。贝勒大学的罗宾斯健康与人文科学学院院长杰森·卡特说：“有些人每晚只需要睡6个小时，有些人可能需要多达10个小时，但这些通常都是极端的情况。”“如果每晚睡眠时间始终少于7个小时，我就会开始担心，如果睡眠时间少于6个小时或更少，我会非常担心。”】

[3] As for the Donald Trumps and Margaret Thatchers of the world, proudly claiming that they were burning the midnight oil to fit all their responsibilities in, it’s not good news: “Based on multiple empirical studies, even those that get four hours of sleep are likely causing cardiovascular and metabolic damage to the body,” says Carter. “That may take years to manifest, even if they appear to be high-functioning on a day-to-day basis.”

译文【至于世界上像唐纳德·特朗普和玛格丽特·撒切尔这样的人，他们自豪地宣称自己为了履行身上所有的职责正在通宵达旦，这可不是什么好消息:“根据多项实证研究，即使是那些每天只睡4个小时的人，也可能对身体造成心血管和代谢损伤，”卡特说。“这可能需要数年时间才能显现出来，即使他们在日常生活中表现得很好。”】

[4] But when does this start to become a problem? After all, plenty of people have the odd work sprint – or a baby – and go for days, or sometimes months, without getting their regular hours in. “A random day once in a while isn’t anything to worry about,” says Dr Marie-Pierre St-Onge, director of Columbia University’s Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research. “That’s what we would describe as transient insomnia. Chronic insomnia occurs when you spend three months or more without regular sleep, and that is when I would start to be concerned.

译文【但这什么时候开始成为一个问题呢?毕竟，很多人都有偶尔的工作冲刺——或者有了孩子——几天，有时几个月都没有正常的工作时间。哥伦比亚大学睡眠与昼夜节律研究卓越中心主任玛丽-皮埃尔·圣翁热博士说:“某天偶然出现这样的情况没什么好担心的。”“这就是我们所说的短暂性失眠。当你连续三个月或更长时间没有规律的睡眠时，就会出现慢性失眠，这就是我开始担心的时候。】

[5] “One useful definition of overall sleep health is the RU-Sated framework, which assesses six key dimensions of sleep that have been consistently associated with health outcomes. These are regularity, satisfaction with sleep, alertness during waking hours, timing of sleep, sleep efficiency and sleep duration.”

译文【“RU-Sated框架可以给整体睡眠健康下一个有用的定义，该框架评估了与健康结果始终相关的睡眠的六个关键方面。这些方面包括规律性、睡眠满意度、清醒时的警觉性、睡眠时间、睡眠效率和睡眠时间。”

[6] Of course, there is a difference between not even giving yourself a chance at a good night’s sleep – browsing Netflix until 2am, say – and having a restless night. “If you are waking up a lot in the night, this will impact the quantity and quality of your sleep, which can lead to compromises in your immune system, reduction in gut health and many other detrimental side-effects,” says Christopher Barker, a personal trainer and sleep management adviser. “It may be an indicator of a sleep disorder or another underlying health condition – if you’re concerned about any of these issues, it’s worth talking to your doctor.”

译文【7】So what is your best bet for catching some quality Zs? Well, start during the day. “Try to expose yourself to sunlight during the day to keep your circadian rhythms on track,” says St-Onge. Physical activity can also help: “Sleep and exercise have a bidirectional relationship,” says Barker. “In a 2013 poll, participants who undertook vigorous physical activity tended to fall asleep faster, woke up less during the night and woke up feeling refreshed, compared with non-exercisers.”

译文【那么，要想睡个好觉，最好的办法是什么呢？好吧，从白天开始。“白天尽量让自己暴露在阳光下，以保持你的昼夜节律正常，”圣翁吉说。体育活动也有帮助:“睡眠和锻炼有双向关系，”巴克说。“在2013年的一项民意调查中，与不运动的人相比，进行强有力的体育锻炼的人往往入睡更快，晚上醒得更少，醒来时感觉精神焕发。”】

【8】When it’s time for bed, make sure you turn in at a reasonably consistent hour, and keep your sleep hygiene in shape. “You should try to keep your weekend routine within one to two hours of your weekday one, and keep them highly consistent,” says Carter. “I’d also suggest keeping your bedroom free of electronics, and keep it cool and dark. I often work with athletes, and one of the first things I ask them to do is activate their devices’ night mode, which cuts down on the emission of blue light that can impede sleep. Ideally, stay off all of your devices for an hour before bed.”

译文【当该睡觉的时候，确保你在一个还算一致的时间上床睡觉，并保持你的睡眠卫生。卡特说:“你应该尽量把周末正常作息时间控制在工作日的一到两个小时之内，并保持高度一致。”“我还建议让你的卧室里不要有电子产品，保持凉爽和黑暗。我经常和运动员一起工作，我要求他们做的第一件事就是启动他们的设备的夜间模式，这样可以减少可能阻碍睡眠的蓝光的发射。理想情况下，睡前一个小时不要碰任何电子设备。

【9】Oh, and taking a deep breath (well, a number of them) really can work: there is evidence that it activates your parasympathetic nervous system and calms you down, making it the perfect way to wind down before bed.

译文【哦，深呼吸(好吧，很多次深呼吸)真的有用:有证据表明，深呼吸可以激活你的副交感神经系统，让你平静下来，这是睡前放松的完美方式。】

一般来说，至少要精读三个月以上才能看到明显的进步，第一次读不懂没有关系，一个月读起来还是很生硬，也没有关系，你不需要一开始就很厉害，小赛会一直陪伴大家，一起进步~