【英语语言学习】你需要小憩一下

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

 

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping. That's more time than we spend doing anything else, but we still don't know very much about sleep. So today, we're trying to answer some pretty basic yet complicated questions: Why do we sleep? Can we live without it, and how can we get more? Because let's face it, there are a lot of us out there who are not exactly sleeping soundly.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, CLOCK TICKING)

 

LISA HURST-CAIRNS: You're looking at your clock and it's - oh, 2:20, 2:30, 2:40; and you're doing the math. Now I've got three hours, or four hours, to sleep, and I'm going to be dead tired in the morning.

 

WILL PARKHURST: I started noticing in the morning that there'd be like, pretty much just crumbs¹ on the ground next to my bed, and I'd have food next to my bed that I did not remember ever bringing to bed with me.

 

RAQUEL ZIC: I usually take Benadryl and melatonin. To get up at 2:30 in the morning, it's kind of a necessary evil.

 

PARKHURST: So I started off with a lot of ice cream. Cereal's pretty common. Pretzels, stuff like that; chips, crackers². For a while, I was eating a bunch of granola in my sleep.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

 

HURST-CAIRNS: For so many years, I was like, fighting this, you know, inability to stay asleep. So every night, waking up and just kind of going, oh, no. Now, I only have like, four more hours; and I've got to do this and this and this the next day - and really, just getting in this like, anxious spiral.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, CLOCK TICKING)

 

MARTIN: That was Lisa Hurst-Cairns(ph), an insomniac³ from Minneapolis; Will Parkhurst(ph), a sleep eater from Austin, Texas; and ambulance driver Raquel Zic(ph), who has to wake up at 2:30 a.m. To better understand the mystery of sleep, we called up Dr. Matthew Walker. He's the principal investigator⁴ at the Sleep Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Walker says after decades of sleep research, there are still some gaping⁵ holes.

 

MATTHEW WALKER: We still cannot give you, the public, a definitive⁶ answer to the question, why do we sleep? We've known the functions of the other three main biological drives - which are eating, drinking and reproducing. But this question of sleep still remains⁷ that archetypal mystery.

 

MARTIN: Is this a source of embarrassment⁸ at all, for people who do what you do; that you can't answer that fundamental question?

 

WALKER: Well, I think it's either an embarrassment, or it's an embarrassment of research question riches - because there have been so many great discoveries within science based on the revolution of sort of genetics and molecular⁹ biology. And sleep remains resistant¹⁰ to all of that, in terms of an answer. So it's a fantastically complex puzzle. And as a researcher, that's what you want. You don't want something where there's an easy answer.

 

MARTIN: So how do you define success in the field of sleep research?

 

WALKER: Yes. So, I think there's really two avenues of success metric, as it were. One of them is to try and answer those basic fundamental questions - you know, what are the benefits of sleep, and what is sleep doing? I think the other is upon knowing that, how can it help people? There are several things that we've been discovering that are critical. The first is the role of sleep in learning and memory. And now, there's really very good evidence that sleep is critical at almost all stages of memory formation, memory processing and long-term memory retention¹¹. And then secondly¹², we have more recently been discovering that sleep plays an intimate role in regulating our emotional well-being¹³ and our mental health.

 

MARTIN: We hear all the time that sleep is a state that perhaps opens different doors of our minds, our brains, and allows a greater sense of creativity. How is that so?

 

WALKER: Well, firstly, we've got wonderful anecdotes¹⁴ throughout history of sleep-inspired creativity. Paul McCartney apparently¹⁵ came up with lots of music, in dreams. Frankenstein, Mary Shelly's text - Dmitri Mendeleev came up with the creation of the periodic table of elements - the construction of that - by way of sleeping. Well, recently, we've been able to find evidence to statistically¹⁶ show that sleep can support that type of creative memory processing. And there seems to be some type of memory processing that's creative that starts take pieces of information that we've learned recently and starts trying to test the connections between that recent information and all of that information you've got stored in your brain.

 

So, it's almost like memory pinball. You're bouncing that information around. You're testing which connections to build. And I think when those types of processes start to happen in sleep, when we start to fuse things together that shouldn't normally go together, they cause marked advances in evolutionary¹⁷ fitness. And that's what we're starting to find in our science.

 

MARTIN: What happens when we don't sleep?

 

WALKER: A whole constellation¹⁸ of different brain and body functions start to deteriorate¹⁹. You can't learn information as effectively. So, pulling the all-nighter is a very bad idea. Your brain is about 40 percent less effective without sleep in terms of absorbing new information. It's almost like a waterlogged sponge. Nothing more can be soaked up. But we also know that if you don't sleep after learning, you lose the chance to essentially²⁰ hit the save button on that information. And that information isn't transferred into long-term memory. We also know, from an emotional perspective, that certain regions within the brain, deep within the brain, those regions become amplified²¹ in their emotional reactivity. So, you become excessively emotionally reactive and part of the reason is because your frontal brain - a part of the brain that we call the prefrontal cortex - that becomes impaired²². And it normally helps regulate those deep emotional senses, so we don't become irrational²³, we don't become Neanderthal. But without sleep, that's exactly what seems to happen.

 

MARTIN: I've got kind of an evolutionary question for you. From one perspective you might think that sleep actually goes against some basic survival instincts. I mean, when we're sleeping we're not eating, we're not protecting ourselves from predators²⁴. Why would we need sleep? Why would we evolve to do this?

 

WALKER: From an evolutionary perspective, everything screams at us that sleep is the very worst thing that you could do. The fact that sleep has fought it way heroically through every step along the evolutionary pathway, what that tells us is that sleep is essential at the most basic of biological levels. And what we're finding now is that it was very smart because sleep serves so many wonderful beneficial functions that far outweigh²⁵ those potential downsides to it.

 

MARTIN: Are you a good sleeper²⁶?

 

(LAUGHTER)

 

WALKER: Yes and no. Certainly, I will routinely get seven and a half to eight hours of sleep a night. The no part of the yes and no is because you sort of become the Woody Allen neurotic²⁷ of the sleep world. So, you know, if I'm sort of lying in bed and I'm thinking, you know, I know all the biology behind sleep, I know what should be happening and I'm thinking, well, this neurochemical is being released, this part of my brain is not shutting down. And at that point of analysis, you're dead in the water for the next two hours, so...

 

MARTIN: So, you can't just drink warm milk or a shot of bourbon and call it a day. You...

 

WALKER: I wish, I wish. And certainly I should know bourbon is a bad idea. Alcohol is profoundly disruptive to sleep. It fragments your sleep and it prevents you from getting REM sleep. But I wish I could and, sadly, no.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LULLABY")

 

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Lullaby and good night...

 

MARTIN: Matthew Walker. He is the principal investigator at the Sleep Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Thank you so much for talking with us, Matthew.

 

WALKER: You're very welcome. Sleep well.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LULLABY")

 

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) (unintelligible) hold thy hand. If God wills...

 

MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

1 crumbs   

int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式

参考例句：

• She stood up and brushed the crumbs from her sweater. 她站起身掸掉了毛衣上的面包屑。
• Oh crumbs! Is that the time? 啊，天哪！都这会儿啦？

2 crackers   

adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘

参考例句：

• That noise is driving me crackers. 那噪声闹得我简直要疯了。
• We served some crackers and cheese as an appetiser. 我们上了些饼干和奶酪作为开胃品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 insomniac   

n.失眠症患者

参考例句：

• She's an insomniac ; she only sleeps for two or three hours a night. 她患失眠症，每晚只睡两三个小时。 来自辞典例句
• The insomniac is habitually afflicted with wakefulness at times when he wishes to sleep. 失眠症患者，这种病人在他想睡觉时经常特别清醒。 来自互联网

4 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

5 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

9 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

10 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

11 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。

12 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

13 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

14 anecdotes   

n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• amusing anecdotes about his brief career as an actor 关于他短暂演员生涯的趣闻逸事
• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman. 他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

16 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

17 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

18 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

19 deteriorate   

v.变坏；恶化；退化

参考例句：

• Do you think relations between China and Japan will continue to deteriorate?你认为中日关系会继续恶化吗？
• He held that this would only cause the situation to deteriorate further.他认为，这只会使局势更加恶化。

20 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

21 amplified   

放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• He amplified on his remarks with drawings and figures. 他用图表详细地解释了他的话。
• He amplified the whole course of the incident. 他详述了事件的全过程。

22 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 irrational   

adj.无理性的，失去理性的

参考例句：

• After taking the drug she became completely irrational.她在吸毒后变得完全失去了理性。
• There are also signs of irrational exuberance among some investors.在某些投资者中是存在非理性繁荣的征象的。

24 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。

26 sleeper   

n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺

参考例句：

• I usually go up to London on the sleeper. 我一般都乘卧车去伦敦。
• But first he explained that he was a very heavy sleeper. 但首先他解释说自己睡觉很沉。

27 neurotic   

adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者

参考例句：

• Nothing is more distracting than a neurotic boss. 没有什么比神经过敏的老板更恼人的了。
• There are also unpleasant brain effects such as anxiety and neurotic behaviour.也会对大脑产生不良影响，如焦虑和神经质的行为。