VOA慢速英语2019 睡眠不规律的危害有多严重?（在线收听）

Poor Sleep Behavior Tied to Many Health Issues

People who have repeatedly changing sleep and wake times and get different amounts of sleep each night are more likely to have metabolic health conditions. That is the finding of a new study.

反复更改生物钟、每晚睡眠时间不规律的人更有可能患代谢疾病。该发现出自一项新研究。

For years, lack of sleep has been linked to a wide collection of metabolic conditions, including obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. But until the recent study, health researchers did not know much about the effects of inconsistent sleep, including nightly changes in sleep amount and timing.

多年来，睡眠不足一直与多种代谢类症状有关，包括肥胖、高血压和糖尿病。但直到最近的这项研究公布，健康研究人员才了解睡眠不规律的影响，包括夜间睡眠量和时间的变化。

Tianyi Huang is among the writers of the study. Huang is with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

黄天一（音译）是这项研究的作者之一。他就职于波士顿的布里格姆女子医院和哈佛医学院。

In an email to Reuters News Agency, Huang said that more inconsistent sleep times are associated with higher metabolic disease risk. And that is “no matter if one has short or long sleep duration or has good or poor sleep quality.”

黄在给路透社的一封电子邮件中表示，睡眠时间越不规律，患代谢疾病的风险就越大。也就是说“无论睡眠时间长短、睡眠质量好坏。”

The researcher explained that night-to-night differences in sleep, either duration or timing, are associated with high risk of having several metabolic problems at the same time.

研究人员解释说，每晚不同的睡眠变化，无论是睡眠时间还是就寝时间，都与同时出现多种代谢问题的高风险有关。

Huang added that these effects cannot be avoided by having a longer sleep duration on some nights.

黄补充说，这些影响即便是数晚的长时间睡眠也抵消不了。

For the study, 2,003 patients did home-based sleep studies for one week. They used devices known as actigraphs, which measure nighttime movements and sleep-wake cycles. The study was published in Diabetes Care.

在这项研究中，2003名患者进行了为期一周的家庭睡眠研究。他们使用了一种名为actigraphs的设备，可以测量夜间活动和睡眠—觉醒周期。这项研究发表在《糖尿病护理》杂志上。

On average, these people got about 7.15 hours of sleep each night and went to bed at around 11:40 p.m. Around two-thirds of them had more than one hour of change in sleep duration. And 45 percent of them had more than one hour of change in their bedtimes.

这些人平均每晚睡7.15小时，晚上11:40左右就寝。大约三分之二的人的睡眠时间变化超过一小时。其中45%的人的就寝时间变化超过一小时。

A total of 707 patients, or 35 percent, had metabolic syndrome – several types of metabolic problems that increase heart disease risks. They included increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, more fat around the stomach, and abnormal levels of some body chemicals.

共有707名（35%）患者患有代谢综合征，这是几种增加心脏病风险的代谢问题。这些症状包括血压升高、高血糖、胃部周围脂肪增多，以及一些身体化学物质的异常水平。

Compared to people who had less than one hour of change in sleep duration, people whose sleep duration changed by 60 to 90 minutes were 27 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome. The increase rose to 41 percent for people with 90 to 120 minutes of change in sleep duration. It rose to 57 percent with more than two hours of change in sleep duration.

与睡眠时间变化少于一小时的人相比，睡眠时间变化从60到90分钟的人患代谢综合征的几率高出27%。而睡眠时间变化在90到120分钟之间的人则增加至41%。睡眠时间变化超过两个小时的情况下，这一比例上升至57%。

Compared with people with no more than half an hour of change in their nightly bedtime, people whose bedtime changed by 30 to 60 minutes were similarly associated with metabolic syndrome. But it was 14 percent higher when bedtimes changed by 60 to 90 minutes. It was 58 percent higher when bedtimes changed by more than 90 minutes.

与每晚就寝时间变化不超过半小时的人相比，就寝时间变化从30至60分钟的人同样与代谢综合征有关。而那些就寝时间变化从60分钟到90分钟的人，这一比例上升了14%。当就寝时间变化超过90分钟，这一比例超过58%。

The study was not designed to prove whether or how changes in sleep duration or bedtimes might cause metabolic syndrome. Instead, it showed an association between inconsistent sleep behavior and metabolic diseases.

这项研究的目的不是证明睡眠时间或就寝时间变化是否或如何可能导致代谢综合征。相反，它表明了不规律的睡眠行为和代谢疾病之间的联系。

Kristen Knutson is a researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She said the reason high inconsistency in sleep affects metabolic health may be about our biological clocks. Knutson was not involved in the study.

克里斯滕森·克努森（Kristen Knutson）是芝加哥西北大学范伯格医学院的研究人员。她说，睡眠不规律影响新陈代谢健康的原因可能与我们的生物钟有关。克努森并未参与这项研究。

She said in an email that the human body has 24-hour rhythms and these rhythms must work together and with the environment for good health.

她在一封电子邮件中指出，人体有24小时的节律，这些节律必须与环境协调一致才能保持健康。

If a person sleeps at different times and different amounts, she said, the body’s clocks may have difficulty “staying synchronized” which may lead to harm.

她说，如果一个人每次入睡时间和睡眠时间都不一致，那么他的生物钟可能难以“保持同步”，这可能会造成伤害。

One limitation of the study is that researchers only studied sleep for one week. So the patients’ longer-term sleep behavior is unknown. Researchers also lacked information on things that affect sleep consistency, like eating breakfast and meal timing, both of which also affect metabolic health.

这项研究局限性是，研究人员仅进行了一周的睡眠研究。因此，病人的长期睡眠行为仍是未知的。研究人员也缺乏有关影响睡眠规律性的信息，比如吃早餐和用餐时间，这两项也会影响新陈代谢健康。

This week-long study was part of a longer-term study on sleep consistency and metabolic problems financed by the National Institutes of Health.

这项为期一周的研究是美国国立卫生研究院资助的一项关于睡眠规律性和代谢问题的长期研究的一部分。

Health experts say most adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night.

健康专家表示，大多数成年人每晚至少需要7小时的睡眠。

For the right amount and to avoid sleep-related problems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers guidelines. They include setting a consistent bedtime, sleeping in a dark room without electronics and avoiding large meals, caffeine and alcohol before bed.

美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）提供了适宜的睡眠量以及避免睡眠相关问题的指南。这些建议包括：设定固定的就寝时间，在没有电子设备的黑暗房间里睡觉，睡前避免吃大餐、摄入咖啡因和酒精。

Words in This Story

metabolic – adj. related to the chemical processes by which a plant or an animal uses food or water to grow, heal and make energy

obesity – n. the state of being very fat in a way that is unhealthy

inconsistent – adj. not continuing to happen or develop in the same way

associate – v. to connect someone or something with something else

cycle – n. a set of events or actions that happen again and again in the same order

rhythm – n. a regular, repeated pattern of events, changes or activities

synchronize – v. to happen at the same time or speed