新奇事件簿 帮助解决失眠烦恼的任务清单

Scientists have an idea that could help us get to sleep faster. All you need is a pen and paper. The scientists are from Baylor University in Texas, USA. They did research into how we can fall asleep more quickly. They found that writing a to-do list helps people get to sleep faster. Doctor Michael K. Scullin was the lead researcher of the study. He said to-do lists make us relax because we don't need to worry about the things we have to do. He said that if we write down the things we need to do, we can forget about them, so we become calmer. He added: "We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime."

科学家们研究出了一个可以帮助快速入睡的方法。仅需要一支笔和纸。这群科学家来自美国德克萨斯州贝勒大学，他们从事如何让人类更快入睡的研究。他们发现写任务清单能够帮助快速睡眠。Michael K. Scullin博士是这项研究的首席研究员。他说任务清单让我们放松，因为我们不必担心要去做的事情。他说如果我们将自己要去做的事情写下来，我们就可以将这些事情抛在脑后，从而变得更加镇定。他还说道：“我们生活在一天24小时一周7天的文化中，在这样的环境下我们的待做事项不断变多，导致我们在睡觉前为这些未完成的任务担心。”

The researchers looked at the sleeping patterns of 57 male and female¹ university students aged² between 18 and 30. Half of them had to write down a to-do list five minutes before they slept. They had to turn the lights out by 10:30pm and could not have access to technology. The researchers found that the participants who wrote to-do lists fell asleep an average of 9 minutes faster than those who didn't. They also found that the students who wrote really detailed³ lists fell asleep faster than students who wrote simple, general lists. The USA's National Sleep Foundation⁴ said that around 40 per cent of American adults have difficulty falling asleep at least a few times each month.

研究员对大学内18到30岁的57名男女学生的睡眠模式进行观察。一半的人会在睡觉前5分钟写任务清单。他们必须在10:30熄灯且不能玩手机的等电子设备。研究员们发现睡前写任务清单的参与者的平均入睡时间比不写清单的参与者快9分钟。他们还发现那些睡前任务清单写的很详细的学生比那些只是简单写写大体计划的学生要睡得快。美国国家睡眠基金会表示约40%的美国成年人每个月至少会出现几次失眠的现象。

1 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

4 foundation   

n.[pl.]地基；基础；基金会；建立，创办

参考例句：

• The foundation of the university took place 600 years ago.这所大学是600年前创办的。
• The Foundation gives money to help artists.那家基金会捐款帮助艺术家。