Back in my early Microsoft days, I routinely pulled all-nighters when we had to deliver a piece of software. once or twice, I stayed up two nights in a row. I knew I wasn’t as sharp when I was operating mostly on caffeine and adrenaline, but I was obsessed with my work, and I felt that sleeping a lot was lazy.
回想微软早年的年月，当咱们一定要要交给一个软件时，咱们常常通宵作业。有一次或两次，我接连两天熬夜。我知道当我主要靠咖啡因和肾上腺素撑着的时分，我的状况不会太好。但其时的我痴迷于作业，我觉得睡太多觉是懒散的体现。
Now that I’ve read Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep, I realize that my all-nighters, combined with almost never getting eight hours of sleep, took a big toll. The book was recommended to me by my daughter Jenn and John Doerr. Walker, the director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science, explains how neglecting sleep undercuts your creativity, problem solving, decision-making, learning, memory, heart health, brain health, mental health, emotional well-being, immune system, and even your life span. The decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact, Walker writes.
当我读完马修沃克的《为何需求睡觉》，我意识到自己通宵作业，加之简直没睡够过八个小时，这对我形成了极大的损伤。沃克是加州大学伯克利分校人类睡觉科学中心的主任，他解说了忽视睡觉会怎么削弱你的创造力、处理问题的才能、决议计划才能、学习才能、记忆力、心脏健康、精力健康、心情健康、免疫系统，乃至缩短你的寿数。沃克写道：整个工业国家正在遭受睡觉削减带来的毁灭性影响。
I don’t necessarily buy into all of Walker’s reporting, such as the strong link he claims between not getting enough sleep and developing Alzheimer’s. In an effort to wake us all up to the harm of sleeping too little, he sometimes reports as fact what science has not yet clearly demonstrated. But even if you apply a mild discount factor, Why We Sleep is an important and fascinating book.
我并不彻底承受沃克的这份陈述，例如他所声明的关于睡觉不足与阿茨海默症之间的强联络。为了使咱们一切人都觉悟关于睡觉太少带来的危害，有时他会用科学还未验证的现实进行论说。可是，即使你会对此书有一些微词，《为何需求睡觉》仍然是一本重要且引人入胜的好书。
Because this is a short review, I’ll answer a few questions that I suspect are top of mind for you.
鉴于这是一篇短评，我将答复几个我以为你会首先想到的问题。
Does everyone really need seven or eight hours of sleep a night? The answer is that you almost certainly do, even if you’ve convinced yourself otherwise. In the words of Dr. Thomas Roth, of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, The number of people who can survive on five hours of sleep or less without impairment, and rounded to a whole number, is zero.
每人每晚真的需求七或八小时的睡觉吗？答案是：你根本上的确需求这么多睡觉，即使你现已压服自己不这样做。借用底特律亨利福特医院托马斯罗斯医师的话：靠五小时乃至更少时刻睡觉存活下来且没有因而形成任何危害的人数，去掉小数点四舍五入，结果是零。
Why do we sleep? After all, when you’re sleepingand all animals doyou can’t hunt, gather, eat, reproduce, or defend yourself. Yet Walker concludes that the evolutionary upsides of sleep are far greater than these downsides. In brief, sleep produces complex neurochemical baths that improve our brains in various ways. And it restocks the armory of our immune system, helping fight malignancy, preventing infection, and warding off all manner of sickness. In other words, sleep greatly enhances our evolutionary fitnessjust in ways we can’t see.
为什么咱们要睡觉？在你睡觉的时分，与一切动物相同，你不能打猎、集会、进食、繁衍或防护自己。但是沃克的结论是，睡觉的演化性优势要远远大过这些消极影响。简而言之，睡觉产生出杂乱的影响神经系统的化学物质，经过不同方法改进大脑的功用。此外，它增强咱们的免疫系统，协助反抗恶性肿瘤，防备感染，以及避免各种疾病。换句话说，睡觉极大地增强了咱们的演化适应性，以咱们肉眼看不见的方法。
What can I do to improve my sleep hygiene?
我能做什么来改进睡觉健康？
Replace any LEDs bulbs in your bedroom, because they emit the most sleep-corroding blue light.
If you’re fortunate enough to be able to control the temperature where you live, set your bedroom to drop to 65 degrees at the time you intend to go to sleep. To successfully initiate sleep … your core temperature needs to decrease by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Walker.
Limit alcohol, because alcohol is not a sleep aid, contrary to popular belief. While it might help induce sleep, alcohol is one of the most powerful suppressors of REM [rapid-eye-movement] sleep, Walker says.
If you can possibly take a short midday nap like our ancestors used to and some Mediterranean and South American cultures still do, you should (but no later than 3 pm). It will likely improve your creativity and coronary health as well as extend your lifetime.
替换掉卧室里一切的LED灯泡，由于它们宣布对睡觉破坏性最强的蓝光。
假如你满足幸运到能够操控居所的温度，请在你预备入眠时将卧室温度下调至65华氏度（译注：约18.3摄氏度）。据沃克所言，若要成功进入眠觉……你的中心体温需求下降2至3华氏度（译注：约1.1-1.8摄氏度）。
约束喝酒，由于酒精不是助眠剂，这与遍及的认知正好相反。虽然它或许有助于诱发睡意，但沃克说：酒精是快速眼动睡觉（译注：睡觉的一个阶段。在这个阶段里，人的大脑十分活泼，眼球会快速滚动，人也很简单做梦）的最强抑制剂之一。
假如你能够正午小憩顷刻，就像咱们的先人曩昔常常做以及一些地中海及南美群落仍然在做的那样，你应该这样做（但不要超越下午3点）。这将有或许提高你的创造力和冠状动脉健康，以及延伸你的寿数。
It took me a little longer than usual to finish Why We Sleepironically, because I kept following Walker’s advice to put down the book I was reading a bit earlier than I was used to, so I could get a better night’s sleep. But Walker taught me a lot about this basic activity that every person on Earth needs. I suspect his book will do the same for you.
我花了比往常更多的时刻读完《为何需求睡觉》这听上去有点挖苦，由于我总是遵从沃克的主张，比我习气的时刻更早一些将书放下，以便在晚上能有更好的睡觉。但关于这项地球人都需求的根本活动，我从沃克那里学到了许多。我想他的这本书也将教会你许多。
