Why Does Sleeping in1 Just Make Us More Tired?

By Nick Stockton

很多人都有過這種經歷：經過一周的辛苦工作，好不容易捱到周末，早早爬上床，一覺睡到第二天日照三竿，結果起床后頭昏腦脹、四肢無力。科學家把這種過度睡眠后產生的如宿醉般的感覺稱為“睡醉”。“睡醉”其實并不能讓你的身體得到真正的休息，反而攪亂了體內的生物鐘，導致睡眠絮亂。

We’ve all been there: It’s been a long week at work, so Friday night, you reward yourself by going to bed early and sleeping in. But when you wake up the next morning (or afternoon), light scathes your eyes, and your limbs feel like they’re filled with sand.2.然而，當你第二天上午（或下午）起床時，卻感覺光線刺眼，四肢像灌了鉛。scathe: 傷害，損害；limbs: 四肢。Your brain is still lying down and you even have faint headache. If too little sleep is a problem, then why is extra sleep a terrible solution?

Oversleeping feels so much like a hangover3. hangover: 宿醉（酒后醒來的頭痛和不舒服）。that scientists call it sleep drunkenness. But, unlike the brute force neurological damage caused by alcohol, your misguided attempt to stock up on rest makes you feel sluggish by confusing the part of your brain that controls your body’s daily cycle.4. 但是，與酒精會造成嚴重的神經損害不同，你囤積睡眠的錯誤做法攪亂了大腦控制日常身體循環的部分，從而讓你感覺無精打采。brute: 殘忍的，強烈的；neurological: 神經性的；misguided: 被誤導的，搞錯的；stock up: 囤積，囤貨；sluggish: 行動遲緩的，無精打采的。

Your internal rhythms are set by your circadian pacemaker, a group of cells clustered in the hypothalamus, a primitive little part of the brain that also controls hunger, thirst, and sweat.5. 你的生理節奏由體內“晝夜節律控制器”設定，即一組聚集在下丘腦的細胞群，下丘腦是人大腦中原生的一小部分區域，控制人的饑餓、口渴和流汗。rhythm: 節奏，規律； circadian pacemaker: [醫]晝夜節律控制器；cell: 細胞；hypothalamus:下丘腦；primitive: [生物學]原生的。Primarily triggered by light signals from your eye, the pacemaker figures out when it’s morning and sends out chemical messages keeping the rest of the cells in your body on the same clock.6. 眼睛接收到光線信號后，“晝夜節律控制器”隨之啟動并感覺到現在是早上，然后發出“化學信號”，讓你身體其余的細胞保持同樣的節奏。trigger: 觸發，引誘； figure out: 弄清楚，理解。

Scientists believe that the pacemaker evolved to tell the cells in our bodies how to regulate their energy on a daily basis.7. 科學家們認為，“晝夜節律控制器”進而指示體內細胞如何每日調節能量。When you sleep too much, you’re throwing off that biological clock, and it starts telling the cells a different story than what they’re actually experiencing, inducing a sense of fatigue.8. 如果你睡太多，你的生物鐘就發生了變化，“晝夜節律控制器”便開始向細胞發出與實際不符的信號，從而引起疲乏感。throw off: 拋棄，擺脫；biological clock: 生物鐘；fatigue: 疲勞。You might be crawling9. crawl: 爬行，緩慢行進。out of bed at 11a.m., but your cells started using their energy cycle at seven. This is similar to how jet lag10. jet lag: 時差反應。works.

But oversleep isn’t just going to ruin your Saturday hike.If you’re oversleeping on the regular, you could be putting yourself at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.11. 如果你經常性地睡眠過多，就有可能患上糖尿病、心臟病和肥胖癥。diabetes: 糖尿病；obesity: 肥胖癥。Harvard’s massive Nurses Health Study found that people who slept 9 to 11 hours a night developed memory problems and were more likely to develop heart disease than people who slept a solid eight. (Undersleepers12. undersleeper: 睡眠不足的人。are at an even bigger risk).Other studies have linked oversleep to diabetes, obesity, and even early death.

Oversleep doesn’t just happen as a misguided attempt at rewarding yourself. The Harvard Nurses Study estimated that chronic13. chronic: 慢性的，長期的。oversleep affects about 4 percent of the population.These are generally people who work odd hours, have an uncomfortable sleep situation, or a sleeping disorder.14. 這些人一般睡覺時間不規律，入睡環境不舒服，或是有睡眠障礙。

People who work early morning or overnight shifts might be oversleeping to compensate for waking up before the sun rises or going to sleep when it’s light out.15. overnight shift: 值夜班；compensate: 補償，彌補。Doctors recommend using dark curtains and arti ficial lights to straighten things out rather than medication or supplements.16. 醫生建議使用深色窗簾或人工照明去解決問題，不要吃藥或吃補品。arti ficial: 人造的；straighten out: 解決問題，使重回正軌；supplement: 補品，營養補給物。Apps like the University of Michigan’s Entrain can also help people reset their circadian clock by logging the amount and type of light they get throughout the day.17. 密歇根大學的“Entrain”等手機應用通過記錄一天中接收到的光線的量和類型，來幫助人們重新設定生物鐘。log: 記錄，記載。

When you go to bed, your body cycles between different sleep stages. Your muscles, bones, and other tissues do their repair work during deep sleep, before you enter REM.18. tissue: [生物學]組織；REM: 快速眼動睡眠，睡眠中最深的一個階段，多數清晰的夢境在此階段發生。

However, if your bed or bedroom is uncomfortable—too hot or cold, messy, or lumpy—your body will spend more time in light, super ficial sleep.19. 但如果你的床或房間不舒服——太熱或太冷、雜亂無章或凹凸不平，你的身體處于淺睡眠的時間就比較多。lumpy: 凹凸不平的。Craving20. crave: 渴望，迫切需要。rest,you’ll sleep longer.

If everything’s just fine with your sleep zone but you still can’t get under the eight hour mark, you might need to go see a doctor. It could be a symptom of narcolepsy,which makes it hard for your body to regulate fatigue and makes you sleep in more.21. 這可能是嗜睡癥的癥狀，讓你的身體無法調節疲乏感，然后睡得更多。narcolepsy: 嗜睡癥。Sleep apnea is a potentially more serious disorder where you stop breathing while you slumber.22. 睡眠呼吸暫停綜合癥是一種更為嚴重的睡眠障礙，即在睡眠中暫停呼吸。sleep apnea: 睡眠呼吸暫停綜合癥；slumber: 小睡，睡眠。It’s typically caused by an obstructed airway, which leads to snoring.23. obstructed: 受阻斷的，受隔斷的；airway: 呼吸道；snoring: 打鼾。However,in a small number of sufferers, the brain simply stops telling the muscles to breathe, starving the brain and eventually forcing a gasping response.24. 然而，對于一小部分患者而言，大腦只是停止發出讓肌肉呼吸的指令，使得大腦自身缺氧，最終導致呼吸困難。starve: 使饑餓；gasping: 喘氣的，倒抽氣的。In addition to all the other terrifying aspects of this disease, it’s not doing your quality of sleep any favors.

No surprise, drugs and alcohol might also be causing you to sleep too much, as does being depressed (In fact,oversleep can contribute to even more depression).25. 毫不奇怪，吸毒和喝酒同樣會讓你睡得過多，抑郁也會（事實上，過度睡眠又會進一步加重抑郁）。But no matter what’s causing it, too much sleep is not good for your long term health. Rather than kicking the can down the road, try getting some equilibrium between your weekend and weekday sleep.26. 別再用過度睡眠這種權宜之計了，試試保持工作日與周末的睡眠平衡吧。kick the can down the road: 緩兵之計，權宜之計；equilibrium: 平衡。