新奇事件簿 帮助解决失眠烦恼的任务清单（在线收听）

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 female university students aged 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 detailed lists fell asleep faster than students who wrote simple, general lists. The USA's National Sleep Foundation 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。