睡眠是你的“超能力”

劉爽

“Sleep is your life-support system and Mother Nature's best effort”， says sleep scientist Matt Walker. In this speech， Walker shares the wonderfully good things that happen when you get sleep —— and the alarmingly bad things that happen when you don't， for both your brain and body. Read this passage and learn more about sleep's effect on your learning， memory， immune system —— as well as some helpful tips for getting some good sleep.

“睡眠是你的生命保障系統，也是大自然的偉大成果”，睡眠專家邁特·沃克如是說。在這篇演講中，沃克分享了睡眠對大腦和身體的影響。當你睡覺時，會有極好的事發生;而當你不睡覺時，令人擔憂的壞事也會發生。讀一下這篇文章，了解更多關于睡覺對學習、記憶力、免疫系統的影響，還可以獲得一些關于良好睡眠的建議。

I would like to start with the brain and the functions of learning and memory， because what we've discovered over the past 10 years is that you need sleep after learning to save those new memories so that you don't forget. But recently， we discovered that you also need sleep before learning to prepare your brain， almost like a dry sponge ready to soak up new information. And without sleep， you can't absorb new memories.

我想從大腦，以及學習和記憶的功能開始講起，因為我們在過去十年中發現，學習之后需要睡覺，這樣你才不會遺忘。但是最近，我們發現在學習之前也需要睡眠，這樣才能準備好自己的頭腦，就像是一塊干海綿準備好吸收新的知識。沒有睡眠的話，你無法吸收新的記憶。

In a study， we took a group of individuals and we assigned them to two experimental groups： a sleep group and a sleep deprivation group. Now the former group， they're going to get a full eight hours of sleep; but the latter， we're going to keep them awake in the laboratory. There's no naps or caffeine， so it's miserable for everyone involved. And then the next day， we're going to place those participants inside an MRI scanner and we're going to have them try and learn a whole list of new facts as we're taking photos of brain activity. And then we're going to test them to see how effective that learning has been. When you put those two groups together， what you find is a quite significant， 40-percent decrease in the ability of the brain to make new memories without sleep.

在這個研究中，我們招募了一組人員，然后將其分到兩個實驗組：充足睡眠組和剝奪睡眠組。前一個小組的被試者可以睡夠八個小時，而后一個小組的被試者會在實驗室中一直保持清醒。他們不能小憩，也沒有咖啡，所以每個人都很痛苦。第二天，我們把這些被試者放進核磁共振掃描儀，讓他們試著學習一整列新知識，同時，會將他們的大腦活躍情況拍攝下來。之后，我們測試他們，來看看他們的學習到底有沒有效果。當你把兩組照片放在一起比較，你可以發現區別很明顯，沒有充足睡眠的大腦，儲存新記憶的能力會下降40%。

So that's the bad that can happen if I were to take sleep away from you， but let me just come back to that sleep group. Do you remember those individuals that got a full eight hours of sleep？ Well， we can ask a very different question： What is it about the physiological quality of your sleep when you do get it that restores and enhances your memory and learning ability each and every day？ And by testing and studying， what we've discovered is that there are big， powerful brainwaves that happen during the very deepest stages of sleep. And it's the combined quality of these deep-sleep brainwaves that acts like a file-transfer mechanism at night， shifting memories from a short-term vulnerable storage to a more permanent long-term one within the brain， and therefore protecting them， making them safe. And it is important that we understand what during sleep actually transacts these memory benefits， because there are real medical and societal effects.

所以，假如我剝奪你的睡眠，一些糟糕的事情就會發生。但容我稍微講一下睡眠組。你們還記得那些睡夠了八個小時的人嗎？我們可以問一個不同的問題：是什么東西決定了你睡覺以后的睡眠質量，讓你每天都能夠強化記憶并且恢復學習能力？通過測試和研究，又強又劇烈的腦電波會發生在深度睡眠階段。正是這些深度睡眠腦電波的綜合作用，在夜間起到了文件傳輸機制的作用，將記憶從一個短期的、易受遺忘的存儲庫轉移到大腦中一個更永久的長期存儲庫，因此得以保存它們，使它們不受損。重要的是，我們要了解在睡眠中究竟是什么在發揮這些記憶的作用，因為這對醫學和社會都有實際的影響。

And let me just tell you about one area that we've moved into. That is aging and Alzheimers disease. Because it's no secret that， as we get older， our learning and memory abilities begin to fade and decline. But what we've also discovered is that a physiological signature of aging is that your sleep gets worse， especially that deep quality of sleep. And only last year， we finally published evidence that these two things， they're not simply occurring together， they are significantly interrelated. And it suggests that the disruption of deep sleep is an important factor that is contributing to cognitive decline or memory decline in aging， and most recently we've discovered， in Alzheimer's disease as well.

讓我告訴大家，我們已經把這項研究轉移到另一個領域了，即衰老和阿爾茨海默癥。因為隨著我們變老，我們的學習和記憶能力開始衰退和減弱，這當然不是什么秘密。但我們也發現衰老的一個生理特征是你的睡眠質量變差了，尤其是深度睡眠質量。在去年，我們終于發現了證據來表明這兩件事不是單純的同時發生，而是明顯相互關聯的。這就表明，在人們衰老時，深度睡眠的中斷是導致認知能力和記憶能力衰退的一個重要因素。最近我們還發現，阿爾茨海默癥也是如此。

Next， I want to focus on this： sleep loss and your immune system. And here， I'll introduce natural killer cells first， and you can think of natural killer cells almost like the secret service agents of your immune system. They are very good at identifying dangerous， unwanted elements and getting rid of them. And tragically， you cannot have these cells if you're not sleeping enough.

接下來，我想要著重討論這點：睡眠的缺失以及你的免疫系統。在這里，我首先介紹自然殺傷細胞，你可以把自然殺傷細胞想象成你免疫系統中的特工。它們非常擅長識別危險和有害的物質，并消滅它們。悲劇的是，當你睡眠不足時，你不能擁有這種細胞。

So here in this experiment， you're not going to have your sleep deprived for an entire night， you're simply going to have 4-hours sleep for one single night， and then we're going to look to see what's the percent reduction in immune cell activity that you suffer. And it's not small —— it's not 10%， it's not 20%. There was a 70% drop in natural killer cell activity. That's a concerning state. Perhaps now you can understand why we're now finding significant links between short sleep duration and your risk for the development of cancer. In fact， the link between a lack of sleep and cancer is now so strong that the World Health Organization has classified any form of nighttime shift work as a probable factor of getting cancer.

所以在這個實驗中，你整晚的睡眠不會被全部剝奪，但你一晚僅能睡4個小時。然后我們來看看你的免疫細胞會受到多大比例的影響。這并不是個小數目——不是10%，不是20%。自然殺傷細胞的活力下降率高達70%。這是個令人擔憂的狀態。或許現在你就能理解為什么我們發現睡眠不足和罹患癌癥之間有重要關聯。事實上，睡眠不足和癌癥之間的聯系是如此緊密，以至于世界衛生組織將任何形式的夜班工作列為可能的致癌因素。

And at this point， you may be thinking， "Oh my goodness， how do I start to get better sleep？ What are your tips for good sleep？" Well， beyond avoiding the damaging and harmful impact of alcohol and caffeine on sleep， and if you're struggling with sleep at night， avoiding naps during the day， I have two pieces of advice for you.

此刻，你可能在想：“老天，我怎樣才能得到更好的睡眠？你有沒有睡個好覺的建議？”好吧，除了避免酒精和咖啡因對睡眠的有害影響，如果你正在與夜晚失眠做斗爭，白天也在避免打盹，那么我給你兩點建議。

The first is regularity. Go to bed at the same time， wake up at the same time， no matter whether it's the weekday or the weekend. Regularity is king， and it will anchor your sleep and improve the quantity and the quality of that sleep. The second is keep it cool. Your body needs to drop its temperature by about two to three degrees Fahrenheit to start to sleep， and it's the reason you will always find it easier to fall asleep in a room that's too cold than too hot. So the temperature of a bedroom should be around 65 degrees， or about 18 degrees Celsius.

首先是規律。準時上床，準時醒來，不管是工作日還是周末。規律為王，它會保障你的睡眠，并且改善你睡眠的時間長短和質量。第二點是降低溫度。你的身體需要把核心溫度降低2到3華氏度，才能進入睡眠，這也是為什么你會發現冷的環境要比熱的環境容易入睡。所以臥室的溫度應該在65華氏度，或者18攝氏度左右。

And then finally， what I want to say is that sleep is not an optional lifestyle. Sleep is an undoubted biological necessity. It is your life-support system， and it is Mother Nature's best effort. And the loss of good sleep in industrial countries is having a terrible impact on our health， even the safety and the education of our children. And it's fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges that we face in the 21st century.

最后我想說，睡眠并不是一個可選的生活方式。睡眠是一個不容置疑的生理需要。它是你的生命保障系統，是大自然母親的最佳饋贈。工業化國家睡眠的丟失對我們的健康，對我們的安全，甚至對孩子的教育有糟糕的影響。它正在快速成為21世紀我們所面臨的公眾健康的最大挑戰之一。

（本文摘自TED官網： https：//www.ted.com/talks/matt_walker_sleep_is_your_superpower）

閱讀文章后，也嘗試找找以下問題的答案吧！

1. What have the researchers recently found about the impact of sleep？

A. We need sleep after learning to save those new memories.

B. We need sleep before learning to get our brain prepared.

C. We cannot learn well without the help of caffeine.

D. We can get new memories even if we do not have enough sleep.

2. Which following statement is true according to the passage？

A. Our brains ability of making memories will decrease 30% if we have a bad sleep.

B. Natural killer cell activity will drop 30% if you sleep 4 hours a day.

C. There is a close relationship between sleep loss and immune system injury.

D. If we lose sleep for one night， we are going to develop cancer.

3. According to the passage， what is the relationship between deep sleep and Alzheimers disease？

A. Lack of deep sleep plays an important role in contributing to the Alzheimers disease.

B. When a person gets Alzheimers disease， he or she cannot get deep sleep.

C. There is no significant relationship between deep sleep and Alzheimers disease.

D. Deep sleep and Alzheimers disease occur simultaneously.

4. What is not Walkers suggestion on sleep？

A. Quit smoking and caffeine.

B. Sleep as regularly as possible.

C. Keep the temperature of the bedroom about 18 degrees Celsius.

D. Getting naps during the day.

參考答案：B C A D