向前一步:第183期 全能女人是个神话(16)

 A 2012 survey of employed adults showed that 80 percent of the respondents continued to work after leaving the office, 2012年一项对职业人士的调查显示，80%的调查对象在离开办公室后还会继续工作，

38 percent checked email at the dinner table, and 69 percent can't go to bed without checking their in-box. 38%的调查对象在餐桌上查收电子邮件，69%的调查对象上床前一定要再看看收件箱。

My mother believes that my generation is suffering greatly from this endless work schedule. 我母亲认为，我这一代人正因为这种无休止的工作时间而备受折磨。

During her childhood and mine, a full-time¹ job meant forty hours a week — Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 在我的童年，一份全职工作意味着每周工作40个小时——从周一到周五，朝九晚五。

She tells me over and over, "There's too much pressure on you and your peers. 她总是跟我这样说：“你们这代人压力太大了，

It's not compatible with a normal life." 这不是正常的生活状态。”

But this is the new normal for many of us. 但对很多人来说，这就是生活的常态。

The new normal means that there are just not enough hours in the day. 属于我们这个时代的生活常态，意味着白天的时间总是不够用。

For years, I attempted to solve this problem by skimping² on sleep, a common but often counterproductive approach. 多年来，我想方设法解决这个问题，比如克扣睡眠时间——这是最常用却常常导致低效的一种方式。

I realized my mistake partially³ from observing my children and seeing how a happy child can melt into a puddle⁴ of tears when he's shy a couple hours of sleep. 发现这种方式不可行，部分是出于我对孩子的观察，我看到他们会因缺觉几个小时就哭闹个不停。

It turns out that adults aren't much different. 事实证明，成年人也没什么不同。

Sleeping four or five hours a night induces mental impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level above the legal driving limit. 每天只睡4到5个小时对大脑的损害，就好比超标的血液酒精含量对驾驶者的损害。

Sleep deprivation⁵ makes people anxious, irritable⁶, and confused. (Just ask Dave.) 缺少睡眠会导致焦虑、易怒和思维混乱。(问戴夫就知道了)

If I could go back and change one thing about how I lived in those early years, I would force myself to get more sleep. 如果时光能倒流，让我对那些年的生活做一个改变，我会强迫自己多睡会儿。

 

1 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

2 skimping   

v.少用( skimp的现在分词 )；少给；克扣；节省

参考例句：

• Nearly a third of workers are skimping on work to meet personal commitments. 几乎有三分之一的员工仅仅是为了达到自己许下的承诺因而在工作上马虎了事。 来自互联网

3 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

4 puddle   

n.(雨)水坑，泥潭

参考例句：

• The boy hopped the mud puddle and ran down the walk.这个男孩跳过泥坑，沿着人行道跑了。
• She tripped over and landed in a puddle.她绊了一下，跌在水坑里。

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 irritable   

adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的

参考例句：

• He gets irritable when he's got toothache.他牙一疼就很容易发脾气。
• Our teacher is an irritable old lady.She gets angry easily.我们的老师是位脾气急躁的老太太。她很容易生气。