Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep Every Night? | Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter | TED

Sleep is so important.

翻译人员: Jacky He 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

睡眠是如此重要，

We need it to live.

没有它我们就无法生存下去。

And when we can't sleep, we're desperate for help.

而当我们无法入睡时， 我们迫切需要帮助。

[Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter]

[与珍·冈特（Jen Gunter） 博士了解身体知识]

But lately, our fascination with sleep feels as if it's taken on an urgency.

但最近，我们对睡眠的着迷 似乎使它伴随着一种紧迫感。

Do a quick internet search for sleep and you'll find a slew of articles

在网上快速搜索一下睡眠， 你会发现很多篇文章

about how to make your sleep perfect.

教你怎样获得完美睡眠。

New gadgets, fancy alarm clocks,

新的科技小设备，设计复杂的闹钟，

stay away from blue light.

远离蓝光。

There are lots of services, products and advice columns

有很多服务、产品和建议专栏

that tell us we're sleeping wrong.

告诉我们睡觉的方式是错的。

Not enough,

睡得不够，

not quality sleep, wrong position.

并非高质量睡眠，姿势不佳。

Even worse, you might find scary messaging

更糟糕的是，你可能会 找到可怕的消息

claiming that if you're not sleeping right

声称如果你睡得不对，

your life is going to be shorter,

你的寿命会缩短，

you're going to get all kinds of diseases.

你会患上各种疾病。

One of the biggest worries we have about our sleep

我们关于睡眠的最大担心之一，

is that we're not getting enough

就是我们没有睡够；

and that anything less than seven hours a night

只要每晚少于 7 个小时，

means that we’re doomed to bad health,

就意味着我们逃脱不了 欠佳的健康状况，

everything from high blood pressure to Alzheimer’s disease.

包括从高血压到老年 痴呆症的所有那些。

But there are two flaws with this kind of messaging.

但这种信息里有两个漏洞。

The first flaw is that it's not completely accurate.

其一是它不完全准确。

Seven to eight hours of sleep,

七到八个小时的睡眠，

while recommended for adults, is just an average.

虽然是成年人的建议时长， 但只是一个平均值。

And while messages have to be simplified for health communication to the public,

虽然传达给大众的 健康信息需要被简化，

sometimes important nuances get lost.

但是有时重要的细节会丢失。

So yes, it's true that not getting enough sleep in the long term

所以是这样没错， 长期缺乏充足睡眠

is associated with health problems like cardiovascular disease,

确实会和心血管疾病、 糖尿病和抑郁症这样的健康问题有关。

diabetes and depression.

But fixating solely on seven to eight hours

但执着于把睡眠时间 固定在七到八小时的范围内，

ignores the fact that there's a range of sleep that people need.

忽略了一个事实—— 人们所需的睡眠时长是因人而异的。

The duration of a good night's sleep can be different for different people.

一夜好眠的持续时间对于 不同的人可以是不一样的。

Some adults need eight, but some are just fine on six.

有些成年人需要八小时， 但有些人六小时差不多了。

The second flaw with this kind of doomsday messaging

这种耸人听闻消息的漏洞其二

is that it can be counterproductive,

是它可能适得其反，

especially for people who do have trouble sleeping.

尤其是对那些入睡困难的人。

For instance, in 2019,

例如，在 2019 年，

it was estimated that 21 percent of adults in the US

估计有美国 21% 的成年人

were wearing sleep tracking devices.

使用睡眠跟踪设备。

And that number is probably growing.

而且这个数字可能会持续增长。

And I get it.

我理解。

It's fascinating to see how much sleep you've gotten each night

能知道你每晚睡了多久

and to know what part of your night was spent in deep sleep or dreaming.

和你在晚上哪个时段有深度 睡眠或做梦是挺有意思，

But having all of that sleep data

但是掌握着所有这些睡眠数据

is causing some people to become obsessed with it,

会导致有些人对它非常在意，

so much so that it’s leading to a condition some call orthosomnia:

以至于到达“睡眠强迫”的级别。

a preoccupation with the constant need to achieve perfect sleep.

意思是时刻执着于追求完美睡眠。

And this condition, ironically, is causing more sleep problems.

而这种情况，讽刺的是， 正在导致更多的睡眠问题。

Now orthosomnia might be an extreme example,

虽然“睡眠强迫”也许 是个极端的例子，

but the anxiety of not getting enough sleep

但没能获得足够睡眠的焦虑感，

is keeping some of us up at night.

让我们中的一些人难以入眠。

So here's what some experts are saying.

这是专家们所说的：

Stop fixating on the number

不要去关注数值，

because that can lead to unrealistic expectations of sleep.

因为那会引起对于 睡眠不切实际的期望。

According to Dr. Colleen Carney,

根据科琳·卡尼博士 （Colleen Carney），

a psychologist and the head of the Ryerson University Sleep Lab,

心理学家以及瑞尔森大学 睡眠研究室主任的说法，

the basic questions you should ask yourself are:

你该问自己的最基本问题是：

Do I feel reasonably well-rested during the day?

我在白天感觉精神充沛吗？

Do I generally sleep through the night without disturbances?

我是否通常晚上睡眠不间断？

Or, if I wake, do I fall back asleep easily?

或者，如果我中途醒来， 我能轻易再次入睡吗？

Can I stay awake through the day without involuntarily falling asleep?

我能整天保持清醒， 不会不由自主地睡着么？

If your answers are yes to all three,

如果你对这三个问题的 回答都是肯定的，

you probably don't need to worry about your sleep.

那你大概不用为 你的睡眠担心。

And if you're struggling with your sleep,

如果你在为睡眠而挣扎，

instead of buying expensive blue light filters

不要购买昂贵的蓝光滤片，

or fancy sleep trackers,

或高级的睡眠追踪设备，

try talking with your doctor to make sure there aren't any medical conditions

而是尝试与你的医生 交流以确认没有其它

that need to be explored first.

要先排除的医疗状况。

Then try evidence-based recommendations

然后试试美国睡眠医学会

laid out by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

给出的有科学依据的建议。

What's really cool is that there's a highly effective therapy

真正炫酷的是 一种高效的疗法，

called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I,

叫做失眠认知行为疗法，

即CBT-I。

It doesn’t have any medications involved.

它不需要任何药物，

And it has a really low failure rate.

失败率也很低。