好英语网睡前看手机或平板？快戒掉这个坏习惯
What was the last thing you did before drifting off last night? You were probably on a device: reading emails, surfing the web or checking social media.
你昨天晚上睡觉前干的最后一件事情是什么？你可能在一款电子设备（手机或平板电脑）上读邮件、看网页、刷朋友圈。
You’re not alone. A study by the National Sleep Foundation estimates 48% of American adults use gadgets such as tablets or laptops in bed and studies in other countries show this is even more prevalent among younger adults.
你这种情况绝非个例。美国国家睡眠基金会（National Sleep Foundation）的一项研究估计，58%的美国成年人在床上使用平板电脑或笔记本电脑等电子产品。其他国家的研究也表明，这种现象在年轻成年人中更加普遍。
But snuggling up with electronic devices is ruining your sleep: keeping you up later and waking you more frequently during the night. More research has shown that night time use of technology can have a detrimental effect on ability to cope with stress, self-esteem and general mental health. Without sufficient sleep, you’re less productive at work and long term health can suffer but few seem able to resist. So why do we do it?
但睡前使用电子设备会破坏你的睡眠：不仅会让你迟迟不能入睡，还会导致你夜间频繁醒来。更多的研究表明，夜里使用科技产品会对人们的抗压能力、自尊心和整体的心理健康产生不利影响。如果得不到充分的睡眠，你的工作效率就会降低，长期的健康也会受到影响，但似乎很少有人能够抗拒这种诱惑。那么，究竟为什么这样呢？
发一条短信，在Facebook上发一篇帖子，或者查看一下电子邮件，意味着你需要等待回复，这就会加快情绪神经系统的运转速度
Sleep, interrupted
睡眠、扰乱
Unlike reading and TV, modern gadgets are interactive rather than passive. Their connectivity to the outside world intrudes into the bedroom, a place that has historically been somewhere private to unwind and forget about a hectic day.
与读书和看电视不同，现代化的电子设备都采用互动模式，而不是被动接收信息。它们带着连接外部世界的能力入侵了我们的卧室，那里历来都是我们放松身心、忘记忙碌的私密场所。
“These devices are causing sleep procrastination,” says Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
"这些设备都会引发睡眠拖延。"加州大学伯克利分校神经科学和心理学教授马修·沃克尔（Matthew Walker）说。
Experts say we need between 30 minutes and an hour of preparation before going to sleep to give our minds a chance to unwind from the stresses of the day. Things like reading a book, having a hot drink or doing a repetitive task like counting sheep all help.
专家表示，我们入睡前需要30分钟到1小时的准备时间，好让思维从一天的紧张中放松下来。看本书、喝杯热饮或者做一些重复性任务（例如属羊）都很有帮助。
But, says Walker, when we pick up our phones, we are undoing that preparation our brains need by extending the day – together with all the stress and worry from it - into our night-time hours.
但沃克尔表示，当我们拿起手机，其实就是在放弃大脑所需的准备过程，因为这样会把白天及其附带的所有紧张和焦虑都延伸到晚上。
“We might feel perfectly sleepy and could drop off easily if the power went out and our phones didn’t work,” he says. “But when we pick up these devices it allows us to put off sleep. Often people will get into bed, someone will ping them on Facebook or send an email, and before they know it 20 to 30 minutes has gone.”
"如果手机没电或者出现故障，我们或许会感觉很困，很容易入睡。"他说，"但当我们拿起这些设备，就会因此推迟睡眠。当人们上床之后，往往还会有人在Facebook上联系他们，或者给他们发送邮件。不知不觉间，二、三十分钟就过去了。"
“Sending a text message, posting something on Facebook or checking your email means you are waiting for a response and revs up your emotional nervous system. Then once you put it down by your bedside, if you leave the phone on, there are all the pings, dings and other sounds that can wake you up during the night.”
"发一条短信，在Facebook上发一篇帖子，或者查看一下电子邮件，意味着你需要等待回复，这就会加快情绪神经系统的运转速度。之后，当你把它放在床边，只要手机仍然开着，就会不停地出现各种提示音，在夜间把你吵醒。"
It appears there is a marked difference between staying up late with a good book or watching television in bed and using smartphones, tablets and laptops. The way we interact with electronic devices allows them to eat into far more of the time we should be asleep, according to researchers.
看书或看电视熬夜，与使用智能手机、平板电脑和笔记本熬夜，似乎存在显而易见的差异。研究人员表示，我们与电子设备的互动方式导致原本应该睡觉的时间遭到大量蚕食。
For example, the blue light given off by many electronic screens can alter the release of a hormone called melatonin, which helps regulate sleep, and can throw the body’s internal biological clock out of sync.
例如，很多电子设备发出的蓝光会改变褪黑激素的释放（这种激素有助于调节睡眠），而且会导致体内生物钟的错位。
Can’t put it down
爱不释手
Ben Carter, a biostatistician at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, has spent the past few years studying the impact of technology on sleep and has uncovered strong associations between the use of portable electronic devices in the bedroom and poor sleep.
伦敦大学国王学院精神病学院生物统计学家本·卡特（Ben Carter）过去几年一直在研究科技对睡眠的影响。他发现，在卧室里使用电子设备与睡眠不良之间存在很强的相关性。
Carter says we have allowed ourselves to sleepwalk “into a situation where we are in bed with our technology and it is controlling us,” he says. “There is no question that can have long-term impacts on the quality of our sleep.”
卡特表示，我们允许自己梦游"进入这样一种环境：我们跟科技同床共枕，让它控制我们。"他说，"这无疑会对我们的睡眠质量产生长期影响。"
So, given the harm this can do, what’s going on? Carter likens the device behaviour to smoking.
究竟为什么会产生这样的危害？卡特将我们使用这种设备的方式比作吸烟。
“If it is something you do last thing at night and first thing in the morning, then you are probably addicted,” he says. According to Carter, being able to access information and engage with others around the clock is so pervasive to our knowledge-hungry, social brains that it can even affect those who should know better.
"如果这是你晚上入睡前的最后一件事情和早晨起来后的第一件事情，那你可能就上瘾了。"他说。卡特表示，全天候获取信息并与他人互动的能力，已经全面渗透到我们渴望知识、喜欢社交的大脑中，甚至还会影响那些应该更加了解此事的人。
“I talked recently with a professor of addiction who told me he wakes up in the night to check the American newspapers on his phone,” says Carter. “I also know I shouldn’t check my phone before bed, I don't want to do it, but it is actually very hard to detox.”
"我最近跟一个上瘾的教授聊过，他说他夜里会醒来用手机查看美国的报纸。"卡特说，"我也知道不应该睡觉前看手机，我不想这样，但我很难抗拒。
Sleep experts believe that, like quitting cigarettes, we must learn to wean ourselves off our gadgets at night so we feel comfortable leaving them in another room.
睡眠专家认为，与戒烟一样，我们必须学会在晚上戒除电子产品，这样才能安心地把它们丢在另一个房间。
The National Sleep Foundation in the US found a fifth of people it surveyed were woken up by their devices in the night and half of those then picked them up to use them.
美国国家睡眠基金会发现，五分之一的受访者会在夜间被设备惊醒，其中半数随后会拿起手机来使用。
Carter conducted a review of 20 studies into the impact of technology on children’s sleep patterns, finding even those who did not use phones or other devices before bed but had them in their bedrooms, slept less deeply than those who left their devices in another room.
卡特对20项研究进行了评估，希望了解科技对儿童睡眠状况的影响。结果发现，即便儿童在上床前不使用手机或其他设备，但只要在卧室里放有这些设备，其深度睡眠状况仍然赶不上直接把设备放在另一个房间的儿童。
“Just the presence of the device in their bedrooms was affecting their sleep,” says Carter. “These children were still cognitively engaged with their devices.”
"只要把设备放在自己的卧室，就会影响睡眠。"卡特说，"儿童仍会在认知上与设备互动。"
“Just having an object that creates a sense of anxiety in your bedroom will actually change the quality of your sleep,” says Walker. Worrying about something happening the next day, such as giving an important presentation at work, has been shown to not only keep people awake at night but also decrease the amount of deep sleep they get when they do drift off.
"只要把能够引发焦虑感的东西放在卧室里，就会改变你的睡眠质量。"沃克尔说。担心第二天的事情（例如进行一场重要的工作演讲）不仅会导致人们失眠，还会在他们入睡时后缩短深睡时间。
Deficiency and addiction
睡眠不足和成瘾
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US says that 35% of American adults are not sleeping enough, an increase from 29% ten years ago. To put this in perspective, the CDC now estimates 70 million US adults are sleeping less than six hours a night. This, it says, is leading to an epidemic of people struggling to concentrate or remember things at work. Insufficient sleep is also implicated in an increased risk of car crashes and industrial accidents.
美国疾病控制和预防中心表示，35%的美国成年人睡眠不足，高于10年前的29%。具体来看，美国疾控中心现在估计，有7,000万美国成年人每晚睡眠不足6小时。这会引发流行病，导致人们难以在工作时集中精力，甚至损伤记忆。睡眠不足还会增加车祸和工业事故的风险。
Further sleep deficiency has been linked to a wide range of health problems, from heart disease and obesity to diabetes and depression.
科学研究已经将进一步的睡眠不足与各种健康问题联系起来，从心脏病和肥胖到糖尿病和抑郁症。
“It is perhaps the biggest unaddressed public health issue of our time,” says Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford. “Sleep is essential for a wide range of functions that serve our health and well being.”
"这恐怕是当今时代尚未解决的公共健康问题中最大的一个。"科林·艾斯派（Colin Espie）说，"对于很多帮助我们保持健康和幸福的生理机能来说，睡眠都至关重要。"
Yet surprisingly, Walker says technology itself may hold the answer to regulate our night time slumbers. There are already many gadgets on the market that claim to monitor and aid sleep. And Walker hopes to use machine-learning technology to produce new ways of intervening if someone is not sleeping properly.
但令人意外的是，沃克尔表示，想要调节睡眠，或许仍然要从科技中寻找答案。市面上已经有很多电子产品号称可以监控和辅助睡眠。沃克尔希望使用机器学习技术制作新的方法，以便在人们睡眠不好的时候进行干预。
“It should be possible to produce a precise sleep prescription for each person to improve their sleep,” he says. “It could look at your calendar for the next day and suggest that because you have an early morning call in the morning, it might be worth getting ready for bed now so you can get enough sleep.”
"应该可以为每个人开具精确的睡眠处方，以此改善他们的睡眠。"他说，"可以看看你第二天的日程表，然后这样想：因为你第二天早晨要早起，所以现在就应该准备上床睡觉，这样才能获得充分的睡眠。"
Similarly, he suggests that algorithms could also gradually adjust our bedtime over several weeks to help us prepare for trips abroad and combat jet lag.
类似地，他认为还可以借助算法在几周的时间里逐步调整我们的就寝时间，从而帮助我们为出国旅行和时差反应做好准备。
“There is no doubt that sleep has been desperately disrupted by our gadgets,” says Walker. “But I also think technology could be our salvation by helping to correct our sleep too.”
"毫无疑问，电子设备一直在干扰我们的睡眠。"沃克尔说，"但我认为，科技也可以拯救我们，帮助我们纠正睡眠状态。"