为什么总感觉睡不够?

Ying-Hui Fu is a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco. She and her colleagues were doing a large scale sleep study when they came across a mother and daughter who had an unusual change to their genetic² code. Both had the same mutation³ of a gene¹ known to help regulate⁴ the body clocks of animals.

　　Ying-Hui Fu: When these people have this mutation, their sleep amount is less. Normal people need eight to eight-and-a-half hours of sleep. These people sleep five and a half to six.

　　Even though the pair weren’t sleeping as much, they seemed fine.

　　 Fu: It’s not like they have sleep problem. They just don’t sleep as much.

　　Do they feel tired?

　　Fu: Not more than most regular people.

　　 Fu’s group wanted to study the effect of the mutation in a more controlled way, so they created a strain of mice with the same genetic change. Sure enough, they found that these mice slept less than the average mouse. What’s more, they seemed to recover more quickly from periods of sleep deprivation⁵. The work is an important step forward, says Charles Czeisler, a sleep expert at Harvard Medical School.

　　Charles Czeisler: This study really shows that uh, the amount of sleep that we need each night is genetically⁶ hard-wired; this tiny genetic change is making a huge change in the behavior of both the people and the animals.

　　In some ways, this study raises as many questions as it answers about sleep. Czeisler says that it doesn’t prove that people with the mutation function as well as the rest of us; it’s possible that they’re just unable to get the sleep they need. He says it’s hard to tell because we really don’t understand the process of sleep at all.

　　Czeisler: No one really knows what the function of sleep is, although the leading hypothesis⁷ is that sleep’s core function relates to the repair and reorganization of brain cells.

　　 Still, studying this gene could help give clues about how and why we sleep. As for those of us who don’t have the mutation, Ying-Hui Fu says that we shouldn’t try and beat our genetic code.

 

1 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

2 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

3 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

4 regulate   

vt.管理，控制，调节，调校，调整

参考例句：

• This system can regulate the temperature of the room.这种系统能调节室内温度。
• They regulate the flow of water by the sluice gate.他们用水闸门控制水的流量。

5 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

6 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

7 hypothesis   

n.假说，假设，(无根据的)猜测，揣测

参考例句：

• We have proved the hypothesis.我们已经证明了这种假设。
• The results confirmed his hypothesis on the use of modal verbs.结果证实了他的关于情态动词用法的假设。