科学美国人60秒 萨尔瓦多·达利的创作秘密得到了科学支持

Salvador Dali's Creative Secret Is Backed by Science

萨尔瓦多·达利的创作秘密得到了科学支持

Salvador Dali had a peculiar¹ way of refreshing² his mind—something he called “slumber with a key.” In his 1948 book 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship³, he described how it worked.

萨尔瓦多·达利有一种独特的方式让自己头脑清醒，他称之为“用钥匙睡觉”在1948年出版的《魔法工艺的50个秘密》一书中，他描述了它是如何工作的。

“You must seat yourself in a bony armchair, preferably of Spanish style,” he wrote. In your left hand, you were to clench⁴ a heavy key, suspended above a plate. Then, he continued, “you will have merely to let yourself be progressively invaded by a serene⁶ afternoon sleep, like the spiritual drop of anisette of your soul rising in the cube of sugar of your body.”

“你必须坐在一张瘦骨嶙峋的扶手椅上，最好是西班牙风格的，”他写道。左手握着一把沉重的钥匙，挂在盘子上。然后，他继续说，“你只需要让自己逐渐进入一个宁静的午睡，就像你灵魂中的安妮塞特的精神之珠在你身体的方糖中升起一样。”

As you drifted off, the key would slip from your fingers and clang on the plate, awakening⁷ you. He claimed the brief moment spent between wake and sleep would revive your physical and psychic⁸ being. And he cautioned that “a mere⁵ second is infinitely⁹ too long.”

当你离开时，钥匙会从你的手指滑落，在盘子上叮当作响，唤醒你。他声称，在清醒和睡眠之间度过的短暂时刻将使你的身体和精神恢复活力。他警告说，“仅仅一秒钟就太长了。”

Now Dali’s mystical-sounding method has been, to some degree, vindicated¹⁰ by science.

Delphine Oudiette: We show that this period between wake and sleep is actually very inspiring for creativity—and napping with an object in hand might help to tap into this creative sweet spot.

现在，科学在一定程度上证明了大理的神秘探空方法是正确的。

Delphine Ouditete：我们发现，从醒来到睡觉的这段时间实际上对创造力非常有启发作用，拿着东西小睡可能有助于挖掘这个创造性的最佳点。

Christopher Intagliata: Delphine Oudiette is a sleep researcher at the Paris Brain Institute. Since childhood, she’s found it easy to slip into the zone between wake and sleep.

Christopher Intagliata：Delphine Ouditete是巴黎大脑研究所的睡眠研究员。从孩提时代起，她就发现自己很容易陷入觉醒和睡眠之间。

Oudiette: I try to sleep with a problem in mind and let the images come to me. And sometimes I have great ideas.

Oudiette：我试着带着一个问题入睡，然后让这些图像浮现在我的脑海里。有时候我有很棒的想法。

Intagliata: But she was curious to find out why—so she and her colleagues asked 103 volunteers to complete a series of math problems. Unbeknownst to the participants, there was a quick shortcut¹¹ to solve all the problems. (Sixteen of the volunteers figured that out and were excluded from the rest of the study.)

Intagliata：但她很想知道为什么她和她的同事要求103名志愿者完成一系列数学题。在参与者不知道的情况下，有一条捷径可以快速解决所有问题。（16名志愿者发现了这一点，并被排除在研究的其他部分之外。）

The volunteers who didn’t determine the secret were asked to emulate¹² Dali’s method—but pinching a plastic bottle with their fingertips rather than a key. Some took a Dali-style micro nap, some napped longer, and others didn’t nap at all.

没有确定秘密的志愿者被要求模仿达利的方法，但用指尖而不是钥匙捏塑料瓶。一些人小睡达利式，一些人小睡更长时间，还有一些人根本不打盹。

After the snooze, the researchers asked all the volunteers to do hundreds more of these math problems. And they found that volunteers who took micro naps were nearly three times as likely to figure out the problem-solving trick, compared to those who didn’t nap at all.

打盹后，研究人员要求所有志愿者再做数百道这样的数学题。他们发现，与那些根本不打盹的志愿者相比，小睡的志愿者想出解决问题诀窍的可能性几乎是不打盹的志愿者的三倍。

Oudiette: That’s a pretty massive result.  We think, maybe in this phase, you have the best of the two worlds: sleep and wake. So you lose control of your thoughts. So you can have loose associations—make distant associations between different memories—and that could be helpful for creativity. But at the same time, you keep some awareness¹³ that might help you to recognize when you have a great idea.

Oudiette: 这是一个相当大的结果。我们认为，也许在这个阶段，你拥有两个世界中最好的：睡眠和觉醒。所以你失去了对自己思想的控制。所以你可以有松散的联系，在不同的记忆之间建立遥远的联系，这可能有助于创造力。但同时，你要保持一些意识，这可能会帮助你认识到什么时候你有一个好主意。

Intagliata: Those who slept for longer periods actually did worse than both those who briefly¹⁴ slept and those who stayed awake. The results appear in the journal Science Advances. [Célia Lacaux et al., Sleep onset¹⁵ is a creative sweet spot]

Intagliata:那些睡眠时间较长的人实际上比那些短暂睡眠和保持清醒的人做得更糟。研究结果发表在《科学进步》杂志上。

Oudiette says the next step of her work will involve repeating the experiment with other creative tasks, beyond math problems ...

Oudiette: And, yeah, to know more about the mechanism—and maybe to try to teach people to reach this creative sweet spot.

Oudiette说，她的下一步工作将涉及重复其他创造性任务的实验，除了数学问题。。。

Oudiette：是的，要知道更多关于这个机制的知识，也许要教人们如何达到这个创造性的最佳状态。

Intagliata: As for Dali? In his book, he describes a variation of his method in which he instructs the reader to, quote, “eat three dozen sea urchins¹⁶, gathered on one of the last two days that precede the full moon.” He specified¹⁷ that “these sea urchins should be eaten preferably in the spring—May is a good month.”

Intagliata: 至于达利？在他的书中，他描述了他的方法的一种变体，他指导读者，引用“吃三十多只海胆，它们是在满月前的最后两天采集的。”他特别指出，“这些海胆最好在春天吃，五月是个好月份。”

Clearly, the great painter has left scientists with much to investigate.

显然，这位伟大的画家给科学家留下了许多需要研究的东西。

1 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

2 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

3 craftsmanship   

n.手艺

参考例句：

• The whole house is a monument to her craftsmanship. 那整座房子是她技艺的一座丰碑。
• We admired the superb craftsmanship of the furniture. 我们很欣赏这个家具的一流工艺。

4 clench   

vt.捏紧（拳头等），咬紧（牙齿等），紧紧握住

参考例句：

• I clenched the arms of my chair.我死死抓住椅子扶手。
• Slowly,he released his breath through clenched teeth.他从紧咬的牙缝间慢慢地舒了口气。

5 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

6 serene   

adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的

参考例句：

• He has entered the serene autumn of his life.他已进入了美好的中年时期。
• He didn't speak much,he just smiled with that serene smile of his.他话不多，只是脸上露出他招牌式的淡定的微笑。

7 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

8 psychic   

n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的

参考例句：

• Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
• She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能，能预知未来。

9 infinitely   

adv.无限地，无穷地

参考例句：

• There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
• The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。

10 vindicated   

v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护

参考例句：

• I have every confidence that this decision will be fully vindicated. 我完全相信这一决定的正确性将得到充分证明。
• Subsequent events vindicated the policy. 后来的事实证明那政策是对的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 shortcut   

n.近路，捷径

参考例句：

• He was always looking for a shortcut to fame and fortune.他总是在找成名发财的捷径。
• If you take the shortcut,it will be two li closer.走抄道去要近2里路。

12 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。

13 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

14 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

15 onset   

n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始

参考例句：

• The drug must be taken from the onset of the infection.这种药必须在感染的最初期就开始服用。
• Our troops withstood the onset of the enemy.我们的部队抵挡住了敌人的进攻。

16 urchins   

n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆

参考例句：

• Some dozen barefooted urchins ganged in from the riverside. 几十个赤足的顽童从河边成群结队而来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• People said that he had jaundice and urchins nicknamed him "Yellow Fellow." 别人说他是黄胆病，孩子们也就叫他“黄胖”了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

17 specified   

adj.特定的

参考例句：

• The architect specified oak for the wood trim. 那位建筑师指定用橡木做木饰条。
• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。