现代生活让我们太疲惫吗？ Is modern life making us tired?

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Alice…
大家好，欢迎收听六分钟英语。我是爱丽丝。
… and I’m Neil.
我是尼尔。
So Neil, did you sleep well last night?
尼尔，昨晚睡得好吗？
Um, yes, thanks. Why do you ask?
恩，很好，谢谢。为什么这么问？
Today we’re talking about how much sleep we need.
今天我们讨论人类需要多久的睡眠。
I like a good eight hours myself – ten at the weekend.How about you?
我自己喜欢睡八个小时，周末的时候十个小时。你呢？
Six is enough for me.But did you know this? Humans sleep around three hours less than other primates like chimps, who sleep for about ten hours.So you’re a chimp, Neil – at the weekends, at least!Are you ready for the quiz question?
对我来说，六个小时就足够了。你知道吗？人类比黑猩猩等灵长类动物少睡3个小时，后者一般睡十个小时左右。所以，你是黑猩猩，至少周末是！准备好回答今天的问题了吗？
OK, I’ll assume that means yes. Right. What’s another word for sleepwalking? Is it…a) narcolepsy?b) restless legs syndrome?or c) somnambulism?
好吧，我就当这是准备好了。梦游的另一种说法是什么？a) 嗜眠发作?b) 多动腿综合征?还是c)夜游症？
I will go for b) restless legs syndrome, since there’s a connection there with the legs.
我选b) 多动腿综合征，因为这和腿有关系。
Well we’ll find out whether you’re right or wrong later on in the show. So what keeps you awake at night, Neil?
好吧，节目最后我们再看你回答得是否正确。什么会使你晚上很清醒呢？
Not much, to be honest. I usually sleep like a log – and that means very heavily indeed! But sometimes my own snoring wakes me up, and then I can find it hard to get back to sleep.Snoring, for those of you who don’t know, means breathing in a noisy way through your mouth or nose while you’re asleep.[snores] … like that… How about you, Alice?
老实说，没有什么。我睡得像死猪一样，也就是说睡得很沉。但是有时我自己的鼾声会把自己吵醒，然后我发现很难再入睡。鼾声也许你不了解，这是睡觉时从嘴或鼻子中发出的很吵的呼吸声。就像这样，你呢，爱丽丝？
Very good, yes. Well, that’s quite ridiculous! Anyway, for me, it’s drinking too much coffee during the day. It’s the caffeine in coffee – a chemical that makes you feel more awake – which can stop you from sleeping at night. But there are so many things that can keep us awake these days.
好吧，这太荒谬了。总之，对我来说，白天喝咖啡我晚上会睡不着。咖啡中的咖啡因，这种化学物质会让你很清醒，影响你夜间的睡眠。但是如今还有很多东西会让我们睡不着觉。
Oh yes. Radio, TV… techy stuff like 24-hour internet, computers, smart phones. I love my phone and it’s never far from me!
没错。广播、电视，还有一些高科技的东西像24小时的网络、电脑和手机。我爱我的手机，从不离身。
Well, let’s hear what Professor Jerome Siegel, from the University of California,found when he studied the sleep habits of three different hunter-gatherer communities who have very little contact with modern society. They don’t have artificial light, electricity, batteries, or any of the gadgets that we rely on today.
我们听听加利福尼亚大学Jerome Siegel教授的看法，他以三个远离现代社会的狩猎部落为研究对象，研究他们的睡眠习惯。他们没有人造光，没有电、电池以及任何我们如今依赖的工具。
Their sleep was not that different from ours. The range of sleep period was about 6.9 to 8.5 hours. If you actually measure sleep in current populations in the United States or in Europe they’re definitely at the low end of what’s been reported. They certainly don’t sleep a lot less than we do but they clearly don’t sleep more.
他们的睡眠和我们没什么不同。大概睡6.9到8.5个小时。如果你真实地测量如今美国和欧洲人口的睡眠时间，他们的睡眠一定低于报道中的数据。他们当然不会比我们少睡很多，但是很明显他们并没有比我们多睡。
Professor Jerome Siegel found that people in these communities don’t go to bed until several hours after sundown – just like us! But one big difference is that very few of them suffer from insomnia– which means having difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.
Jerome Siegel教授发现这些部落的人们在太阳下山几个小时后才睡觉，和我们一样！但最大的不同在于他们很少失眠，失眠是指很难入睡和安睡。
Now, I don’t have a problem with insomnia. And hunter-gatherers – people who live by hunting animals and gathering plants to eat – don’t either– probably because they take a lot of physical exercise during the day.
我没有失眠症。狩猎采集者是指那些依靠捕猎动物颌收集果实生存的人，他们也不会失眠，也许是因为白天他们进行了大量身体活动。
Yes, that’s right. Taking exercise is an important factor in sleeping soundly – or well – at night.But these days our minds can be so active that it becomes very difficult to fall asleep.Let’s listen to Professor Kevin Morgan, from Loughborough University here in England,talking about how cognitive behavioural therapy can be used to help people with insomnia.
没错，锻炼对于晚上安眠作用很大。但是如今人们的思维非常活跃，使得我们很难入睡。我们听听英格兰拉夫堡大学Kevin Morgan教授的看法，他会讲述认知行为疗法如何帮助人们治疗失眠。
If you have a train of thoughts which would otherwise keep you awake one way of dealing with this is to block those thoughts. What I’d like you to do is repeat the word ’the’ in your mind at irregular intervals – the the the the the the the the the – what you’ll find (is) that the mind space required to do this blocks out almost everything else.
如果你思绪万千，影响你入睡，那么解决这一问题的方法就是阻断这些思绪。我建议你在脑海中以不规律的间隔重复“the”这个词，the the the the the the the the the，你会发现做这件事会让你没空想别的。
So Professor Kevin Morgan suggests saying one word over and over again at irregular intervals – irregular in this context means not spaced out evenly. Doing it can help to block out the thoughts that are stopping you from getting to sleep. It sounds like a very simple solution.I wonder if it works?
所以Kevin Morgan教授建议以不规律的间隔一遍遍重复一个单词，这里的不规律是指不均匀的间隔。做这些能够让你停止影响睡眠的胡思乱想。这方法听上去很简单。我想知道这管不管用？
There’s one way to find out, Neil. Try it yourself!
有一个方法可以测试管不管用，那就是你自己试试。
I will.
我会的。
OK. And cognitive behavioural therapy by the way is a treatment for mental health problems that tries to change the way you think.
好了，认知行为疗法是通过改变你的思考方式，治疗心理疾病的一种方法。
Well, I usually count sheep if I can’t get to sleep. Do you do that, Alice?
如果我睡不着，我通常会数羊。你会这么做吗？
No, not usually. No. OK, I think it’s time for the answer to our quiz question.I asked: What’s another word for sleepwalking?Is it… a) narcolepsy? b) restless legs syndrome? or c) somnambulism?
通常不会。好了，是时候公布今天问题的答案了。我问你：梦游的另一种说法是什么？a) 嗜眠发作?b) 多动腿综合征?还是c)夜游症？
And I said b) restless legs syndrome.
我选的是b) 多动腿综合征。
Sorry, Neil, it’s actually c) somnambulism – the roots of this word come from Latin.Somnus means ’sleep’ and and ambulare means ’walk’.Narcolepsy is a condition where you can’t stop yourself falling asleep, especially during the day.
很抱歉，正确答案是c)夜游症，这一个词来源于拉丁文。Somnus是指“睡觉”，ambulare是指“行走”。嗜睡是指人不由自主的犯困睡觉，尤其是白天。
Narcolepsy… (says in a sleepy way)
嗜睡。
And restless legs syndrome is a condition that makes you desperate to move your legs around, especially when you’re sitting quietly or trying to get to sleep.
多动腿综合征是指不自主得抖腿，尤其是静坐或快睡着的时候。
… get to sleep… (murmuring)
快睡着了。
Neil! Wake up!
尼尔！醒醒！
Oh, hello Alice! Sorry.
噢，嗨，爱丽丝，不好意思。
Hello! Can we hear today’s words again, please?
好了，我们再听一遍今天的单词吧？
OK, yeah:
好的：
sleep like a log
睡得沉
snoring
打鼾
caffeine
咖啡因
insomnia
失眠
hunter-gatherers
狩猎采集者
soundly
酣睡地
irregular
不规律地
cognitive behavioural therapy
认知行为疗法
Well, that just about brings us to the end of this edition of 6 Minute English.We hope you’ve enjoyed this programme.
好了，今天的六分钟英语就到这里。希望你喜欢今天的节目。下次再会！