你到底需要多少睡眠？：英語精讀講義

Tired?

累了嗎？

We all know the feeling.

這種感覺我們都懂。

Irritable, groggy, and exceptionally lazy.

煩躁、昏昏沉沉，而且特別懶散。

Chances are you didn't sleep enough last night or the past few nights. 片語搭配

很可能是你昨晚或前幾晚沒睡飽。

But what exactly is enough sleep?

但究竟睡多久才算夠？

And more importantly, can you ever catch up on it? 片語動詞

更重要的是，少睡的覺之後還補得回來嗎？

While the very function of sleep is still debated by scientists, 文法

雖然科學家仍在爭論睡眠究竟有什麼作用，

we do know that it's necessary to function efficiently and productively. 文法

但我們知道，要有效率又有生產力地運作，睡眠不可或缺。

After all, we spend 24 years of our lifetime sleeping. 表達脈絡

畢竟，我們一生中有24年都在睡覺。

It'd better be important. 文法

那它最好真的很重要。

Researchers have tested how much is required each night 文法

研究人員測試了人每晚究竟需要睡多久，

by assigning groups of people to 4, 6, and 8 hours of sleep

他們讓不同組別的人分別睡4小時、6小時和8小時，

over extended periods of time.

並持續了很長一段時間。

After 14 days,

14天後，

those with 8 hours of sleep exhibited few attention lapses or cognitive issues.

每晚睡8小時的人幾乎沒有注意力不集中或認知方面的問題。

However, those with 6 or 4 hours of sleep showed a steady decline.

然而，每晚睡6小時或4小時的人，表現卻持續下滑。

In fact, after only 2 weeks,

事實上，短短兩週後，

the 6 hour group showed a similar reaction time 片語搭配

6小時組的反應時間就和

to a person with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.1%, 文化背景

血液酒精濃度為0.1%的人差不多，

which is considered legally drunk.

而這在法律上已被認定為酒醉。

The 4 hour sleepers suffered even more,

4小時組的情況更糟，

occasionally falling asleep during their cognitive tests.

他們有時甚至會在認知測驗中睡著。

In both groups,

在這兩組中，

brain function decreased day by day

大腦功能都一天比一天差，

almost linearly with no sign of leveling off.

而且幾乎呈線性下降，完全沒有趨於穩定的跡象。

Scientists have dubbed this cumulative effect as sleep debt. 文化背景

科學家把這種累積效應稱為「睡眠債」。

So, can we recover from it?

那麼，這筆債補得回來嗎？

After a night or two of little sleep, 文法

如果只是一兩個晚上沒睡飽，

studies show that the body and brain can fully recover with a few nights of good sleep.

研究顯示，只要接下來幾晚睡得好，身體和大腦就能完全恢復。

However, with long-term sleep deprivation on the scale of weeks to months, 片語搭配

然而，如果長期睡眠不足，持續數週甚至數月，

the recovery of cognitive function is much slower,

認知功能恢復的速度就會慢得多，

requiring many more nights of quality sleep. 文法

需要更多晚的優質睡眠。

On the time scale of months to years,

如果時間拉長到數月甚至數年，

it's unknown whether brain function can be fully repaired 文法

大腦功能能否完全恢復，

or if it causes permanent damage.

或是會不會造成永久性損傷，目前仍不得而知。

Paradoxically, with chronic sleep deprivation, 表達脈絡

矛盾的是，長期睡眠不足時，

your sleepiness or how tired you feel does eventually level off, 片語動詞

你的睡意，也就是主觀疲勞感，最後會趨於穩定，

meaning that you become less and less aware of your objective impairment over time. 文法

也就是說，時間越久，你越難察覺自己的實際能力已經受損。

So, how long should you sleep?

那麼，到底該睡多久？

Most studies tend to show that 7 to 8 hours of sleep is the average ideal for humans. 片語搭配

多數研究顯示，對人類而言，平均理想睡眠時間是7到8小時。

Apart from the cognitive issues,

除了認知方面的問題，

individuals who consistently sleep less than 7 hours a night

每晚長期睡不到7小時的人

have an increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes,

罹患心臟病、肥胖症和糖尿病的風險都會增加，

not to mention a 12% higher risk of death. 表達脈絡

更別說死亡風險還會提高12%。

On the flip side, 慣用語

反過來說，

studies have shown that while sleeping more than 8 hours does not impair brain function,

研究顯示，雖然睡超過8小時不會損害大腦功能，

it also carries an increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, 片語搭配

但罹患心臟病、肥胖症和糖尿病的風險同樣會增加，

and a 30% increased risk of mortality.

死亡風險也會提高30%。

So, too much sleep may also be a bad thing.

所以，睡太多也可能不是好事。

But variation most certainly exists,

但個體差異確實存在，

and our genetics play a large role. 片語搭配

而基因在其中扮演著重要角色。

In fact,

事實上，

individuals genuinely unaffected by only 6 hours of sleep

有些人即使只睡6小時也真的不受影響，

were found to have a mutation of a specific gene. 文法

研究發現，他們的某個特定基因出現了突變。

When scientists genetically engineered mice to express this gene,

當科學家透過基因工程讓小鼠表現這種基因時，

they were able to stay awake for an extra 1.2 hours than normal mice. 文法

這些小鼠能比一般小鼠多保持清醒1.2小時。

It turns out these short sleepers have more biologically intense sleep sessions than the average person. 表達脈絡

原來，這些睡得少的人，每次睡眠在生理上的強度都比一般人更高。

Ultimately,

總而言之，

while it's important to know the ideal average of 7 to 8 hours exists,

雖然我們應該知道，平均7到8小時是理想睡眠時間，

let your body and brain help you figure out its own needs. 片語動詞

但也要讓你的身體和大腦幫你判斷自己究竟需要睡多久。

After all,

畢竟，

no one shoe size fits all. 慣用語

沒有一種鞋碼適合所有人。

If you want to know how to get better quality sleep each night

如果你想知道如何提升每晚的睡眠品質，

in order to conquer the hurdles of sleep deprivation,

進而克服睡眠不足帶來的種種難題，

we have some tips and research for you over on ASAPThought.

我們在ASAPThought上準備了一些技巧和研究。

You can find the link in the description below to that video.

你可以在下方說明欄找到那支影片的連結。

Thanks to audible.com for giving you a free audiobook

感謝audible.com免費送你一本有聲書，

of your choice at audible.com/asap. 片語搭配

你可以在audible.com/asap自行挑選。

Audible is the leading provider of audiobooks

Audible是領先的有聲書供應商，

with over 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature.

各類文學作品中可下載的書目超過15萬種。

We recommend the A Song of Ice and Fire series,

我們推薦《冰與火之歌》系列，

which the Game of Thrones TV show is based off of. 用詞

電視影集《冰與火之歌：權力遊戲》就是以它為原著。

It's kept us up through the nights and caused a lot of lost sleep. 片語動詞

它讓我們一晚又一晚捨不得睡，少睡了不少覺。

You can download this audiobook or another of your choice for free

你可以免費下載這本有聲書，也可以任選另一本，

at audible.com/asap.

網址是audible.com/asap。

And with a subscription,

而且訂閱之後，

you get one free book a month,

你每個月都能免費獲得一本書，

so you can read the whole series.

這樣就能讀完整套系列。

Special thanks to Audible for making these videos possible.

特別感謝Audible的支持，讓這些影片得以製作。

And subscribe for more weekly science videos.

別忘了訂閱，每週收看更多科學影片。