Why do we sleep? | Russell Foster

翻译人员: Ning Zhang 校对人员: xuan wang

What I'd like to do today is talk about one of my favorite subjects,

我今天想和大家探讨的是

一个我很喜欢的主题，

and that is the neuroscience of sleep.

神经科学睡眠。

Now, there is a sound --

现在，有一个声音——

(Alarm clock)

（闹钟声）——

Ah, it worked!

哈哈，它响了——

A sound that is desperately familiar to most of us,

我们大部人对这声音都非常非常熟悉，

and of course it's the sound of the alarm clock.

当然，这是闹钟声。

And what that truly ghastly, awful sound does

这个讨人厌的可怕的声音做了什么呢

is stop the single most important behavioral experience

它终止了我们所拥有的非常重要的一种行为体验

that we have, and that's sleep.

那就是睡眠。

If you're an average sort of person,

如果你是一个正常人，

36 percent of your life will be spent asleep,

那么你生命的36%都将花在睡眠上，

which means that if you live to 90,

这意味着如果你活到90岁，

then 32 years will have been spent entirely asleep.

那么32年的时间完完全全地都用在了睡眠上。

Now what that 32 years is telling us is that sleep at some level is important.

这32年告诉我们

在某种程度上睡眠是重要的。

And yet, for most of us, we don't give sleep a second thought.

但是，对于大部人来说，我们不会对睡眠这件事多加思索。

We throw it away.

我们把它扔掉了。

We really just don't think about sleep.

关于睡眠，我们没有真正好好思考过。

And so what I'd like to do today is change your views,

所以，今天我要做的就是

改变你们对睡眠的认识，

change your ideas and your thoughts about sleep.

改变你们对睡眠的想法和观点。

And the journey that I want to take you on,

在带领你们开始这段旅程的时候，

我们先来个时光倒流。

we need to start by going back in time.

"Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber."

“享受沉稳香甜的睡眠甘露。”

Any ideas who said that?

知道谁说过这话吗？

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

莎士比亚的凯撒大帝。

Yes, let me give you a few more quotes.

对，我再给你们多念点引用的句子吧。

"O sleep, O gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse,

“噢，睡眠，噢，温柔的睡眠，自然界的温柔护士，

how have I frighted thee?"

我吓坏你了吗？”

Shakespeare again, from -- I won't say it --

又是莎士比亚的，但我不会说出处。

the Scottish play.

那是一个苏格兰戏剧。［更正：应为亨利四世，第二部分］

(Laughter)

（笑声）

From the same time:

来自同一时代：

"Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together."

“睡眠是一个金链条

将我们的健康和身体紧联。”

Extremely prophetic, by Thomas Dekker, another Elizabethan dramatist.

托马斯·德克尔曾说过的，非常有预见性。

另一位伊丽莎白时代的剧作家。

But if we jump forward 400 years,

如果我们前进400年，

the tone about sleep changes somewhat.

关于睡眠的论调变了，

下面这一句是托马斯·爱迪生说的，在20世纪初期，

This is from Thomas Edison, from the beginning of the 20th century:

"Sleep is a criminal waste of time and a heritage from our cave days."

“睡眠是犯罪性的时间浪费，

是原始人的遗物。” 砰。

Bang!

（笑声）

(Laughter)

And if we also jump into the 1980s, some of you may remember

如果我们再跳到1980年代，

你们有些人可能会记得撒切尔夫人

that Margaret Thatcher was reported to have said,

在一次采访中曾经说道“懦夫才需要睡觉。”

"Sleep is for wimps."

And of course the infamous -- what was his name? --

当然，还有名声不怎么样的人——他叫什么来着？

the infamous Gordon Gekko from "Wall Street" said,

对，就是声名狼藉的《华尔街》电影中的戈登·盖柯，

"Money never sleeps."

他说”金钱从不睡觉。“

What do we do in the 20th century about sleep?

在20世纪，我们对睡眠做了什么？

Well, of course, we use Thomas Edison's light bulb

当然，我们用托马斯·爱迪生的灯泡

to invade the night, and we occupied the dark,

侵袭了夜晚，而且我们也占领了黑暗，

and in the process of this occupation,

并且在这个占领的过程中，

我们对待睡眠几乎象对待一种疾病。

we've treated sleep as an illness, almost.

We've treated it as an enemy.

我们把它当成敌人。

At most now, I suppose, we tolerate the need for sleep,

现在，最多，我想我们容忍着对睡眠的需要，

但在最坏的情况下，也许很多人认为睡眠

and at worst perhaps many of us think of sleep

as an illness that needs some sort of a cure.

是一种疾病，某种程度上它需要被治愈。

And our ignorance about sleep is really quite profound.

我们对睡眠的无知真的是很严重。

Why is it? Why do we abandon sleep in our thoughts?

为什么？为什么我们不想睡觉呢？

Well, it's because you don't do anything much while you're asleep, it seems.

因为，在你睡觉时，

看起来，你不做任何事情。

你不吃。你不喝。

You don't eat. You don't drink.

And you don't have sex.

你也没有发生性行为。

Well, most of us anyway.

我指的是大部分人没有。

And so, therefore it's --

所以它是——

Sorry.

抱歉。睡眠完全是浪费时间，对不对？

It's a complete waste of time, right?

Wrong.

Actually, sleep is an incredibly important part of our biology,

错了！事实上，睡眠对我们至关重要。

and neuroscientists are beginning to explain

神经科学家已经开始解释为什么

why it's so very important.

睡眠是那么重要。

So let's move to the brain.

我们来看看大脑。

Now, here we have a brain.

这里有一个大脑。

This is donated by a social scientist,

这是一个社会学家捐赠的，

他们说他们不知道这是什么，

and they said they didn't know what it was or indeed, how to use it, so --

或者他们不知道该怎么用它，所以——

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Sorry.

抱歉。

So I borrowed it.

所以，被我借过来了。我觉得他们没注意到。好吧。

I don't think they noticed. OK.

（笑声）

(Laughter)

The point I'm trying to make is that when you're asleep,

我想说的是当你在睡觉时，

this thing doesn't shut down.

大脑是不会停止的。

In fact, some areas of the brain are actually more active

事实是，当人在睡眠时，大脑的某些区域

要比醒着的时候更活跃。

during the sleep state than during the wake state.

The other thing that's really important about sleep

另外一个关于睡眠的非常重要的事是

is that it doesn't arise from a single structure within the brain,

它不会从大脑内部的单一的结构产生，

而是在某种程度上由一个网状的结构产生，

but is to some extent a network property.

If we flip the brain on its back --

如果我们看大脑的后面——

I love this little bit of spinal cord here --

我喜欢这个，这是脊髓

this bit here is the hypothalamus,

这个点是下丘脑

and right under there is a whole raft of interesting structures,

在这下面是一个有趣的结构，

not least the biological clock.

尤其是生物钟。

The biological clock tells us when it's good to be up,

生物钟告诉我们何时该起床，

when it's good to be asleep,

何时该睡觉，

and what that structure does is interact

这个结构是与下脑丘内的

其它部位互动，

with a whole raft of other areas within the hypothalamus,

the lateral hypothalamus, the ventrolateral preoptic nuclei.

与下丘脑外侧，脑侧室前视核互动。

All of those combine,

所有这些组合在一起，他们发出预测信息

and they send projections down to the brain stem here.

向下传送到这里的脑干。

The brain stem then projects forward

之后，脑干再将信息发送出

and bathes the cortex, this wonderfully wrinkly bit over here,

并且包裹住大脑皮层，覆盖这里的这些漂亮的褶皱型的物质，

with neurotransmitters that keep us awake

和神经递质一起让我们保持清醒

and essentially provide us with our consciousness.

让我们有意识。

所以睡眠是从脑内

So sleep arises from a whole raft

of different interactions within the brain,

不同部位的相互作用而产生的，

and essentially, sleep is turned on and off

根本上说，睡眠是在这里一系列互动活动的作用下

as a result of a range of interactions in here.

产生和停止。

好。我们讲到哪里了？

OK. So where have we got to?

We've said that sleep is complicated

我们已经说过睡眠是复杂的

and it takes 32 years of our life.

和它占据了我们生命的32 年时间。

But what I haven't explained is what sleep is about.

但我还没解释什么是睡眠。

So why do we sleep?

那么我们为什么睡觉？

And it won't surprise any of you that, of course,

它不会给你们任何一个人惊喜，当然，

as scientists, we don't have a consensus.

科学家们还没达成一致的观点。

There are dozens of different ideas about why we sleep,

关于为什么我们睡觉，有几十个不同的说法，

我从中提炼出三点原因。

and I'm going to outline three of those.

The first is sort of the restoration idea,

第一，是修复的观点

and it's somewhat intuitive.

这个观点有点直观假设。

Essentially, all the stuff we've burned up during the day,

基本上，在白天我们已经燃烧用尽了所有精力，

we restore, we replace, we rebuild during the night.

我们需要在夜间得到修复，更换，和重新生成。

And indeed, as an explanation, it goes back to Aristotle,

的确，作为一种解释，

这要追溯到亚里斯多德

so that's what -- 2,300 years ago.

所以也就是要追溯到2300年前。

It's gone in and out of fashion.

这个观点曾经流行过。

It's fashionable at the moment

当时流行的原因是

because what's been shown is that within the brain,

人们发现只有在睡眠时,

a whole raft of genes have been shown to be turned on only during sleep,

大脑内部的很多基因才会活动起来，

and those genes are associated with restoration and metabolic pathways.

而且这些基因与修复

和新陈代谢的途径相关联。

So there's good evidence for the whole restoration hypothesis.

所以这就为这整个修复的假设观点提供了证据。

What about energy conservation?

关于节约能源的观点呢？

Again, perhaps intuitive.

这或许也是一种直观的假设。

You essentially sleep to save calories.

基本上，当你睡觉时你是在保存热量。

Now, when you do the sums, though, it doesn't really pan out.

现在，当你算个总数的话，

这个观点并没说服力。

If you compare an individual who has slept at night,

如果你把一个晚上睡觉的与另一个熬夜的但没有做多少运动的人

放一起比较，

or stayed awake and hasn't moved very much,

那么睡一晚上大约存了110 卡路里热量。

the energy saving of sleeping is about 110 calories a night.

Now, that's the equivalent of a hot dog bun.

这是相当于一个热狗面包。

Now, I would say that a hot dog bun

我要说，对于睡眠，这样一个复杂和必须的行为来说，

is kind of a meager return

最后才换来一个热狗面包，

for such a complicated and demanding behavior as sleep.

实在是有点说不过去。

So I'm less convinced by the energy conservation idea.

所以我不太相信这种能量保存的观点。

But the third idea I'm quite attracted to,

但第三个观点很吸引我，

which is brain processing and memory consolidation.

就是大脑处理和记忆整合。

What we know is that, if after you've tried to learn a task,

我们知道的是，如果你试图学习某项事物，

如果你的睡眠被剥夺了的话，

and you sleep-deprive individuals,

the ability to learn that task is smashed.

那么学习这项事物的能力就被破坏了。

It's really hugely attenuated.

这真是巨大的退步。

So sleep and memory consolidation is also very important.

所以睡眠和记忆的巩固也是非常重要的。

However, it's not just the laying down of memory

然而，我们不只是躺下来

and recalling it.

开始回顾。

What's turned out to be really exciting

真正让人兴奋的是

我们用新颖的办法解决复杂问题的能力

is that our ability to come up with novel solutions to complex problems

被一晚上的睡眠给大大加强了。

is hugely enhanced by a night of sleep.

事实上，这带给我们三倍的优势。

In fact, it's been estimated to give us a threefold advantage.

Sleeping at night enhances our creativity.

晚上睡觉增强了我们的创造力。

And what seems to be going on is that, in the brain,

在大脑中，

那些重要的神经连接将继续工作，

those neural connections that are important,

those synaptic connections that are important,

那些重要的突触连接

are linked and strengthened,

会连接在一起并得到加强，

while those that are less important tend to fade away and be less important.

而那些不重要的东西

会被弱化，显得不重要了。

OK.

好，这样我们有三种解释，为什么我们要睡觉，

So we've had three explanations for why we might sleep,

and I think the important thing to realize is that the details will vary,

我认为我们需要意识到

细节是多样的，我们可能是有很多不同的原因要睡觉。

and it's probable we sleep for multiple different reasons.

But sleep is not an indulgence.

但是，睡眠不是一种放纵。

It's not some sort of thing that we can take on board rather casually.

它不是某种我们可以随随便便看待的事情。

I think that sleep was once likened to an upgrade

我认为睡眠可以比喻为

from economy to business class, you know, the equivalent of.

从经济舱升级到商务舱。

It's not even an upgrade from economy to first class.

但它没到从经济舱升级到头等舱那个地步。

The critical thing to realize is that if you don't sleep,

最关键的事是，

如果你不睡觉，就好比你无法起飞。

you don't fly.

Essentially, you never get there.

从根本上讲，你也无法做成任何事情，

And what's extraordinary about much of our society these days

如今，我们的社会

is that we are desperately sleep-deprived.

却拼命绝望地剥夺我们的睡眠。

So let's now look at sleep deprivation.

所以，我们现在看看睡眠的剥夺。

社会中大部分人的睡眠都被剥夺了，

Huge sectors of society are sleep-deprived,

让我们看看我们的睡眠计量表。

and let's look at our sleep-o-meter.

So in the 1950s, good data suggests that most of us

在 50 年代，良好的数据表明我们大多数人

were getting around eight hours of sleep a night.

每晚约睡8 个小时。

Nowadays, we sleep one and a half to two hours less every night,

如今，我们每晚少睡一个半到两个小时，

so we're in the six-and-a-half-hours every-night league.

所以，我们每晚只睡6个半小时。

For teenagers, it's worse, much worse.

对于青少年来说、 情况更加糟糕。

They need nine hours for full brain performance,

为了大脑的充足表现，他们需要睡够9 个小时，

and many of them, on a school night, are only getting five hours of sleep.

但他们很多人，在上学的夜晚，

只睡5个小时。

It's simply not enough.

这是根本不够的。

If we think about other sectors of society -- the aged;

想想社会的其他人群，老年人，

if you are aged, then your ability to sleep in a single block

老年人的睡眠

is somewhat disrupted, and many sleep, again,

被打断成好几部分，

less than five hours a night.

加起来一晚上睡眠少于五个小时。

Shift work.

轮班工作的人

Shift work is extraordinary,

perhaps 20 percent of the working population,

大概占工作人口的20%，

但人体生物钟

and the body clock does not shift to the demands of working at night.

不会随夜间工作的要求而调整。

It's locked onto the same light-dark cycle as the rest of us.

它和我们其他人一样拥有相同的光暗周期。

所以当可怜的轮班工人非常疲惫地回到家

So when the poor old shift worker is going home

to try and sleep during the day, desperately tired,

试着在白天睡觉，

the body clock is saying, "Wake up. This is the time to be awake."

人体生物钟会说，"醒醒。现在应该是醒着的时间"。

So the quality of sleep that you get as a night shift worker

所以身为一名值夜班工作者的睡眠质量

is usually very poor, again in that sort of five-hour region.

通常非常差，他们同样被划分为只睡5小时的人群里。

And then, of course, tens of millions of people suffer from jet lag.

然后，数以千万的人们

受时差影响。

So who here has jet lag?

那么，在座的有谁受时差影响？

Well, my goodness gracious.

我的天啊。

Well, thank you very much indeed for not falling asleep,

好，非常感谢您现在没睡着，

because that's what your brain is craving.

因为那是你大脑正在渴望的。

One of the things that the brain does is indulge in micro-sleeps,

大脑还会做一件事

它会沉溺于微睡眠，

this involuntary falling asleep,

这是非自愿性的睡眠，

and you have essentially no control over it.

你根本无法控制它。

Now, micro-sleeps can be sort of somewhat embarrassing,

微睡眠让人尴尬，

但他们也可以致命。

but they can also be deadly.

据估计，31%的司机

It's been estimated that 31 percent of drivers

will fall asleep at the wheel at least once in their life,

一生中至少有一次在开车时睡着了，

在美国，统计数字显示惊人：

and in the US, the statistics are pretty good:

100,000 accidents on the freeway have been associated with tiredness,

在高速公路上发生的10万起交通事故

与疲倦，放松警惕，

loss of vigilance, and falling asleep -- a hundred thousand a year.

和打瞌睡有关。

平均每年10 万起。这很惊人。

It's extraordinary.

At another level of terror,

另一种恐怖是

we dip into the tragic accidents at Chernobyl

我们看到切尔诺贝利的事故

and indeed the space shuttle Challenger,

和挑战者航天飞机失事，

which was so tragically lost.

都是损失惨重。

And in the investigations that followed those disasters,

随后的调查中发现

由于轮班工作者延长的工作时间所造成的

poor judgment as a result of extended shift work

and loss of vigilance and tiredness

判断力差，丧失警惕和疲倦

was attributed to a big chunk of those disasters.

是导致悲剧的主因。

所以，当你累了，缺觉了，

When you're tired and you lack sleep,

you have poor memory, you have poor creativity,

你的记忆力变差，你的创造力降低，

你容易冲动，

you have increased impulsiveness,

and you have overall poor judgment.

你的整体判断也会下降。

But my friends, it's so much worse than that.

但我的朋友们，还有比这更糟的事呢。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

If you are a tired brain,

如果大脑累了，

它渴望某种东西来唤醒它。

the brain is craving things to wake it up.

所以，药品，兴奋剂，和咖啡因是大多数

So drugs, stimulants.

Caffeine represents the stimulant of choice

西方世界的选择。

across much of the Western world.

Much of the day is fueled by caffeine,

大部分时间我们用咖啡因提神，

and if you're a really naughty tired brain, nicotine.

如果大脑过度劳累，就会选择尼古丁。

Of course, you're fueling the waking state with these stimulants,

当然，你要保持清醒状态，

就会用这些兴奋剂，

and then, of course, it gets to 11 o'clock at night,

然后，到了晚上11点时，

大脑会说，"啊，实际上，

and the brain says to itself,

"Actually, I need to be asleep fairly shortly.

我需要小睡一会。

What do we do about that when I'm feeling completely wired?"

当我们特困的时候，我们该做点什么呢?"

Well, of course, you then resort to alcohol.

嗯，当然，你会求助于酒精。

Now alcohol, short-term, you know, once or twice,

酒精，短期内用一两次，

to use to mildly sedate you, can be very useful.

可以让你轻度镇静，这非常有用。

It can actually ease the sleep transition.

它实际上可以帮助睡眠的过渡。

But what you must be so aware of is that alcohol doesn't provide sleep.

但你必须意识到

酒精只会麻醉你，但它不能提供真正的睡眠，

A biological mimic for sleep,

那只是一个生物模仿性的睡眠。

it sedates you.

So it actually harms some of the neural processing

它实际上会危害神经活动过程，

这包含记忆的强化

that's going on during memory consolidation and memory recall.

和回忆。

所以它是一个短期急性措施，

So it's a short-term acute measure,

but for goodness sake,

但看在上帝的份上，千万不要上瘾，

don't become addicted to alcohol

不要每晚都得依靠酒精睡眠。

as a way of getting to sleep every night.

另外，睡眠和体重增加有关联。

Another connection between loss of sleep is weight gain.

If you sleep around about five hours or less every night,

如果你每晚只睡5个小时或更少，

then you have a 50 percent likelihood of being obese.

那么你有 50%超重的可能性。

这两者之间的关联是什么？

What's the connection here?

Well, sleep loss seems to give rise to the release of the hormone ghrelin,

睡眠缺失看起来会释放

更多的荷尔蒙生长激素（ghrelin），即饥饿激素。

the hunger hormone.

Ghrelin is released.

饥饿激素（ghrelin）一旦被释放，

It gets to the brain.

The brain says, "I need carbohydrates,"

它就到达大脑，大脑就会说"我需要碳水化合物，"

and what it does is seek out carbohydrates and particularly sugars.

它会寻找碳水化合物

特别是糖。

So there's a link between tiredness

这就是疲倦和增重的代谢倾向

两者之间的关联。

and the metabolic predisposition for weight gain: stress.

压力。疲惫的人压力都很大。

Tired people are massively stressed.

And one of the things of stress, of course, is loss of memory,

压力造成的后果之一

是记忆丧失，

which is what I sort of just then had a little lapse of.

这就是为什么刚刚我跳过一小段。

但压力影响更大。

But stress is so much more.

所以如果只是突然感受到压力，这不是一个很大的问题，

So, if you're acutely stressed, not a great problem,

but it's sustained stress associated with sleep loss that's the problem.

但如果是一个与睡眠损失相关的

持续的压力，这会是个问题。

所以，持续的压力导致免疫功能被抑制，

Sustained stress leads to suppressed immunity.

And so, tired people tend to have higher rates of overall infection,

所以，疲惫的人更容易受到感染，

and there's some very good studies

有一些很好的研究显示

showing that shift workers, for example, have higher rates of cancer.

轮班工作者，有较高的癌症患病率。

Increased levels of stress throw glucose into the circulation.

压力会增加血液循环中的葡萄糖。

Glucose becomes a dominant part of the vasculature

当葡萄糖成为血管中重要成分时，

and essentially you become glucose intolerant.

身体对葡萄糖的耐受性降低。

Therefore, diabetes 2.

因此，会患上2型糖尿病。

Stress increases cardiovascular disease as a result of raising blood pressure.

压力会增加心血管疾病

会升高血压。

So there's a whole raft of things associated with sleep loss

所以，有很多与睡眠损失相关的事情

that are more than just a mildly impaired brain,

并不仅仅像大多数人认为的

which is where I think most people think that sleep loss resides.

睡眠不足只会引起

大脑轻度受损。

So at this point in the talk, this is a nice time to think,

现在，这个演讲是个很好的机会让我们想想，

"Well, do you think on the whole I'm getting enough sleep?"

你觉得整体上而言，你的睡眠充足吗？

So a quick show of hands.

请举手让我们看看。

这里谁觉得自己睡眠充足？

Who feels that they're getting enough sleep here?

噢，非常好。

Oh. Well, that's pretty impressive.

Good. We'll talk more about that later, about what are your tips.

很好。我们稍后会详细谈谈你们入睡的秘诀是什么。

So most of us, of course, ask the question,

大部分人都会问个问题，

"怎么知道我是否得到足够的睡眠?"

"How do I know whether I'm getting enough sleep?"

嗯，这不是深奥的科学。

Well, it's not rocket science.

If you need an alarm clock to get you out of bed in the morning,

如果早上起床你需要一个闹钟，

if you are taking a long time to get up,

如果你花很长时间起床，

if you need lots of stimulants,

如果你需要大量的兴奋剂，

if you're grumpy, if you're irritable,

如果你脾气乖戾易怒，

if you're told by your work colleagues that you're looking tired and irritable,

如果你的同事告诉你

您看起来疲倦和易怒、

chances are you are sleep-deprived.

你很可能就是睡眠不足。

Listen to them. Listen to yourself.

听听他们，听听你自己。

What do you do?

你该怎么办呢？

Well -- and this is slightly offensive --

这有点冒犯之意。

sleep for dummies.

白痴睡眠法：

(Laughter)

Make your bedroom a haven for sleep.

将你的卧室变成睡眠天堂。

The first critical thing is make it as dark as you possibly can,

关键的第一步是让卧室尽可能的保持黑暗，

and also make it slightly cool.

并让室温稍微低一些。这非常重要。

Very important.

实际上，至少在睡前半个小时

Actually, reduce your amount of light exposure

at least half an hour before you go to bed.

就需要少接受光线的照射。

Light increases levels of alertness and will delay sleep.

光线增加警醒度，并延迟睡眠。

我们大多数人睡前做的最后一件事是什么？

What's the last thing that most of us do before we go to bed?

我们站在一个光线明亮的浴室

We stand in a massively lit bathroom,

对着镜子清洁牙齿。

looking into the mirror cleaning our teeth.

It's the worst thing we can possibly do before we go to sleep.

这是入睡前

最不适合做的事。

请关闭移动电话，计算机。

Turn off those mobile phones. Turn off those computers.

Turn off all of those things that are also going to excite the brain.

关闭所有的那些会让大脑兴奋的东西。

尽量不要在一天太晚的时间喝咖啡因

Try not to drink caffeine too late in the day,

ideally not after lunch.

最好午餐后就不要喝了。

Now, we've set about reducing light exposure before you go to bed,

现在，我们降低睡前接受的光线，

but light exposure in the morning

但早上接受的光线

is very good at setting the biological clock to the light-dark cycle.

对调整生物钟的光暗周期非常有益。

So seek out morning light.

所以早上要迎接晨光。

Basically, listen to yourself.

根本地说，你要听听你自己。

Wind down.

放轻松。做那些可以舒缓，

Do those sorts of things

that you know are going to ease you off

让你平静的

into the honey-heavy dew of slumber.

进入一个沉稳香甜的睡眠甘露的事情。

OK.

好，这是一些事实。其他的误区是什么？

That's some facts. What about some myths?

Teenagers are lazy.

青少年很懒惰，错了！可怜的孩子们。

No. Poor things.

They have a biological predisposition to go to bed late and get up late,

他们的生理

倾向于晚睡晚起，所以饶了他们吧。

so give them a break.

We need eight hours of sleep a night.

我们每晚需要8个小时的睡眠。

That's an average.

这是一个平均值。有些人需要更多，有些人需要较少。

Some people need more. Some people need less.

And what you need to do is listen to your body.

你需要做的就是听从你的身体。

Do you need that much or do you need more?

睡那么多就够了或者你还需要更多吗？

Simple as that.

就这么简单。

Old people need less sleep.

老年人需要较少的睡眠。不正确。

Not true.

The sleep demands of the aged do not go down.

老年人的睡眠不会随年纪增长而减少。

Essentially, sleep fragments and becomes less robust,

从根本上讲，是睡眠变成片段式的，变得没那么沉稳了，

but sleep requirements do not go down.

但睡眠的需求不会减弱。

And the fourth myth is early to bed, early to rise

第四个误区是，

早睡早起

makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

使人拥有健康、 财富和智慧。

Well, that's wrong at so many different levels.

在很多层面上，这个观点都是错的。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

There is no evidence that getting up early and going to bed early

没有证据表明

早睡早起给你更多的财富。

gives you more wealth at all.

There's no difference in socioeconomic status.

在社会经济地位上没有区别。

In my experience,

以我的经验，

the only difference between morning people and evening people

早起和晚起的人的唯一区别在于

只是那些清晨早起的人

is that those people that get up in the morning early

are just horribly smug.

会沾沾自喜罢了。

(Laughter)

（笑声）（掌声）

(Applause)

OK.

所以，最后几分钟，

So for the last few minutes,

what I want to do is change gears

我想换个话题

and talk about some really new, breaking areas of neuroscience,

和大家谈谈新的突破性的神经科学领域的发现，

which is the association between mental health,

这些与心理健康，精神疾病

mental illness and sleep disruption.

和睡眠失调有关。

We've known for 130 years that in severe mental illness,

130年来，我们都知道，

重症精神疾病和失调有关

there is always, always sleep disruption,

but it's been largely ignored.

但这一认识却被大家忽视了。

In the 1970s, when people started to think about this again,

在20 世纪70年代，当人们重新开始想起这件事，

they said, "Yes, well, of course you have sleep disruption in schizophrenia,

他们说，"是的，精神分裂症患者当然会受到睡眠干扰

因为他们服用抗精神病药物。

because they're on antipsychotics.

It's the antipsychotics causing the sleep problems,"

是这些药物导致了睡眠问题，"

ignoring the fact that for a hundred years previously,

这忽视了之前一百年来的事实，

sleep disruption had been reported before antipsychotics.

事实显示睡眠失调发生于用药之前。

So what's going on?

所以到底怎么回事？

Several groups are studying

有很多团队和小组正在研究

conditions like depression, schizophrenia and bipolar

抑郁症、 精神分裂症和双重人格，

and what's going on in terms of sleep disruption.

和睡眠失调的原因。

We have a big study which we published last year on schizophrenia,

去年我们针对精神分裂症患者发表了一项重大的研究，

and the data were quite extraordinary.

那些数据非同寻常。

In those individuals with schizophrenia,

那些患有精神分裂症的人，

much of the time, they were awake during the night phase

很多的时间，他们在晚上睡眠的时间却是醒着的

and then they were asleep during the day.

然后他们白天睡着了。

其他团队显示他们没有遵守24小时的生理周期。

Other groups showed no 24-hour patterns whatsoever --

their sleep was absolutely smashed.

他们的睡眠完全被摧毁了。

And some had no ability to regulate their sleep by the light-dark cycle.

有些人无法通过光暗周期来调节睡眠的能力。

They were getting up later and later and later and later each night.

他们起的越来越晚睡的也越来越晚

睡眠被摧毁了。

It was smashed.

So what's going on?

为什么会这样呢？

And the really exciting news

让人兴奋的消息是，

is that mental illness and sleep are not simply associated,

精神疾病和睡眠并不是简单的关联

but they are physically linked within the brain.

而是在脑部有生理上的连接。

The neural networks that predispose you to normal sleep,

神经网络的正常连接让你倾向于正常睡眠

give you normal sleep,

正常的睡眠

and those that give you normal mental health, are overlapping.

与帮助你获得正常心理健康的物质重叠。

And what's the evidence for that?

证据是什么？

能令睡眠正常的

Well, genes that have been shown

to be very important in the generation of normal sleep,

那些非常重要的基因

when mutated, when changed,

当它们变异和发生改变时，

also predispose individuals to mental health problems.

人的心理健康也会倾向产生问题。

过去一年，我们发表了一份研究报告

And last year, we published a study

表明与精神分裂症相连的基因，

which showed that a gene that's been linked to schizophrenia,

when mutated, also smashes the sleep.

当它们变异时也会摧毁睡眠。

So we have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlap

所以我们有证据显示两大系统有某种

between these two important systems.

重要的巧妙的关联。

Other work flowed from these studies.

还有其他相关的研究。

The first was that sleep disruption

第一是，睡眠失调会发生在

actually precedes certain types of mental illness,

某些特定类型的精神病之前，

and we've shown that in those young individuals

我们已经证明，

who are at high risk of developing bipolar disorder,

那些极容易患双重人格的年轻人，

they already have a sleep abnormality

他们在诊断出双重人格之前

prior to any clinical diagnosis of bipolar.

已经有睡眠失常的表现。

The other bit of data was that sleep disruption

其他关于睡眠失调的数据

实际上可能

may actually exacerbate, make worse, the mental illness state.

会加剧精神疾病。

My colleague Dan Freeman has used a range of agents

我的同事丹 · 弗里曼已使用一系列方法

可以稳定偏执狂患者的睡眠

which have stabilized sleep and reduced levels of paranoia

in those individuals by 50 percent.

减轻这些人50%的症状。

So what have we got?

所以我们得到了什么？

We've got, in these connections, some really exciting things.

我们看到了这些令人兴奋的关联。

In terms of the neuroscience,

在神经科学领域，

by understanding these two systems,

通过了解这两大系统，

we're really beginning to understand how both sleep and mental illness

我们真正开始理解

睡眠和精神疾病是由脑部产生和调控的。

are generated and regulated within the brain.

The second area is that if we can use sleep

第二是，如果我们可以使用睡眠

and sleep disruption as an early warning signal,

并把睡眠失调作为一个早期的预警信号，

then we have the chance of going in.

那么我们就有机会介入。

If we know these individuals are vulnerable,

如果我们知道这些人是脆弱的

early intervention then becomes possible.

早期的干预会成为可能。

And the third, which I think is the most exciting,

第三，也是我认为最令人兴奋的

is that we can think of the sleep centers within the brain

是我们可以把脑部的睡眠中心

as a new therapeutic target.

作为一个新的治疗目标。

Stabilize sleep in those individuals who are vulnerable,

稳定那些脆弱人群的睡眠

我们当然可以让他们更健康，

we can certainly make them healthier,

but also alleviate some of the appalling symptoms of mental illness.

也会缓解精神疾病带来的不适。

So let me just finish.

我来做个总结。

What I started by saying is: Take sleep seriously.

我们需要认真对待睡眠。

Our attitudes toward sleep are so very different

从工业化时代前，

from a pre-industrial age,

我们对睡眠的态度是非常不同的，

when we were almost wrapped in a duvet.

那时，我们热爱和留恋睡眠，

We used to understand intuitively the importance of sleep.

我们过去是理解睡眠的重要性的。

And this isn't some sort of crystal-waving nonsense.

这不是什么无稽之谈。

This is a pragmatic response to good health.

这是对于良好的健康的正常的反应。

If you have good sleep, it increases your concentration,

如果你有良好的睡眠，它能增加你的集中力，

attention, decision-making, creativity, social skills, health.

注意力、 决策力、 创造力、 社会技能、和 健康。

If you get sleep, it reduces your mood changes, your stress,

如果你入睡了，它能减少你的情绪变化，你的压力，

your levels of anger, your impulsivity,

你的愤怒，你的冲动，

and your tendency to drink and take drugs.

也减少你喝酒和服用药物的倾向。

And we finished by saying

我们可以这样总结

that an understanding of the neuroscience of sleep

对睡眠的神经科学的理解

is really informing the way we think

正在改变

about some of the causes of mental illness,

我们对精神疾病成因的看法，

and indeed is providing us new ways

也的确为这些极端状况的病情

to treat these incredibly debilitating conditions.

提供了新的治疗方式。

Jim Butcher, the fantasy writer, said,

幻想作家，吉姆·布契曾说，

"Sleep is God. Go worship."

"睡眠是上帝。去崇拜它吧"。

And I can only recommend that you do the same.

我会建议你们也这样做。

Thank you for your attention.

谢谢大家的关注。

（掌声）

(Applause)