Sleep is so important. We need it to live. And when we can't sleep, we're desperate for help.

睡眠是如此重要， 沒有它我們就無法生存下去。 而當(dāng)我們無法入睡時(shí)， 我們迫切需要幫助。

But lately, our fascination with sleep feels as if it's taken on an urgency. Do a quick internet search for sleep and you'll find a slew of articles about how to make your sleep perfect. New gadgets, fancy alarm clocks, stay away from blue light. There are lots of services, products and advice columns that tell us we're sleeping wrong. Not enough, not quality sleep, wrong position. Even worse, you might find scary messaging claiming that if you're not sleeping right your life is going to be shorter, you're going to get all kinds of diseases.

但最近，我們對(duì)睡眠的著迷 似乎使它伴隨著一種緊迫感。 在網(wǎng)上快速搜索一下睡眠， 你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)很多篇文章 教你怎樣獲得完美睡眠。 新的科技小設(shè)備，設(shè)計(jì)復(fù)雜的鬧鐘， 遠(yuǎn)離藍(lán)光。 有很多服務(wù)、產(chǎn)品和建議專欄 告訴我們睡覺的方式是錯(cuò)的。 睡得不夠， 并非高質(zhì)量睡眠，姿勢(shì)不佳。 更糟糕的是，你可能會(huì) 找到可怕的消息 聲稱如果你睡得不對(duì)， 你的壽命會(huì)縮短， 你會(huì)患上各種疾病。

One of the biggest worries we have about our sleep is that we're not getting enough and that anything less than seven hours a night means that we’re doomed to bad health, everything from high blood pressure to Alzheimer’s disease. But there are two flaws with this kind of messaging. The first flaw is that it's not completely accurate. Seven to eight hours of sleep, while recommended for adults, is just an average. And while messages have to be simplified for health communication to the public, sometimes important nuances get lost. So yes, it's true that not getting enough sleep in the long term is associated with health problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression. But fixating solely on seven to eight hours ignores the fact that there's a range of sleep that people need. The duration of a good night's sleep can be different for different people. Some adults need eight, but some are just fine on six.

我們關(guān)于睡眠的最大擔(dān)心之一， 就是我們沒有睡夠； 只要每晚少于 7 個(gè)小時(shí)， 就意味著我們逃脫不了 欠佳的健康狀況， 包括從高血壓到老年 癡呆癥的所有那些。 但這種信息里有兩個(gè)漏洞。 其一是它不完全準(zhǔn)確。 七到八個(gè)小時(shí)的睡眠， 雖然是成年人的建議時(shí)長， 但只是一個(gè)平均值。 雖然傳達(dá)給大眾的 健康信息需要被簡化， 但是有時(shí)重要的細(xì)節(jié)會(huì)丟失。 所以是這樣沒錯(cuò)， 長期缺乏充足睡眠 確實(shí)會(huì)和心血管疾病、 糖尿病和抑郁癥這樣的健康問題有關(guān)。 但執(zhí)著于把睡眠時(shí)間 固定在七到八小時(shí)的范圍內(nèi)， 忽略了一個(gè)事實(shí)—— 人們所需的睡眠時(shí)長是因人而異的。 一夜好眠的持續(xù)時(shí)間對(duì)于 不同的人可以是不一樣的。 有些成年人需要八小時(shí)， 但有些人六小時(shí)差不多了。

The second flaw with this kind of doomsday messaging is that it can be counterproductive, especially for people who do have trouble sleeping. For instance, in 2019, it was estimated that 21 percent of adults in the US were wearing sleep tracking devices. And that number is probably growing. And I get it. It's fascinating to see how much sleep you've gotten each night and to know what part of your night was spent in deep sleep or dreaming. But having all of that sleep data is causing some people to become obsessed with it, so much so that it’s leading to a condition some call orthosomnia: a preoccupation with the constant need to achieve perfect sleep. And this condition, ironically, is causing more sleep problems.

這種聳人聽聞消息的漏洞其二 是它可能適得其反， 尤其是對(duì)那些入睡困難的人。 例如，在 2019 年， 估計(jì)有美國 21% 的成年人 使用睡眠跟蹤設(shè)備。 而且這個(gè)數(shù)字可能會(huì)持續(xù)增長。 我理解。 能知道你每晚睡了多久 和你在晚上哪個(gè)時(shí)段有深度 睡眠或做夢(mèng)是挺有意思， 但是掌握著所有這些睡眠數(shù)據(jù) 會(huì)導(dǎo)致有些人對(duì)它非常在意， 以至于到達(dá)“睡眠強(qiáng)迫”的級(jí)別。 意思是時(shí)刻執(zhí)著于追求完美睡眠。 而這種情況，諷刺的是， 正在導(dǎo)致更多的睡眠問題。

Now orthosomnia might be an extreme example, but the anxiety of not getting enough sleep is keeping some of us up at night. So here's what some experts are saying. Stop fixating on the number because that can lead to unrealistic expectations of sleep. According to Dr. Colleen Carney, a psychologist and the head of the Ryerson University Sleep Lab, the basic questions you should ask yourself are: Do I feel reasonably well-rested during the day? Do I generally sleep through the night without disturbances? Or, if I wake, do I fall back asleep easily? Can I stay awake through the day without involuntarily falling asleep? If your answers are yes to all three, you probably don't need to worry about your sleep. And if you're struggling with your sleep, instead of buying expensive blue light filters or fancy sleep trackers, try talking with your doctor to make sure there aren't any medical conditions that need to be explored first. Then try evidence-based recommendations laid out by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. What's really cool is that there's a highly effective therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I, It doesn’t have any medications involved. And it has a really low failure rate.

雖然“睡眠強(qiáng)迫”也許 是個(gè)極端的例子， 但沒能獲得足夠睡眠的焦慮感， 讓我們中的一些人難以入眠。 這是專家們所說的： 不要去關(guān)注數(shù)值， 因?yàn)槟菚?huì)引起對(duì)于 睡眠不切實(shí)際的期望。 根據(jù)科琳·卡尼博士 （Colleen Carney）， 心理學(xué)家以及瑞爾森大學(xué) 睡眠研究室主任的說法， 你該問自己的最基本問題是： 我在白天感覺精神充沛嗎？ 我是否通常晚上睡眠不間斷？ 或者，如果我中途醒來， 我能輕易再次入睡嗎？ 我能整天保持清醒， 不會(huì)不由自主地睡著么？ 如果你對(duì)這三個(gè)問題的 回答都是肯定的， 那你大概不用為 你的睡眠擔(dān)心。 如果你在為睡眠而掙扎， 不要購買昂貴的藍(lán)光濾片， 或高級(jí)的睡眠追蹤設(shè)備， 而是嘗試與你的醫(yī)生 交流以確認(rèn)沒有其它 要先排除的醫(yī)療狀況。 然后試試美國睡眠醫(yī)學(xué)會(huì) 給出的有科學(xué)依據(jù)的建議。 真正炫酷的是 一種高效的療法， 叫做失眠認(rèn)知行為療法， 即CBT-I。 它不需要任何藥物， 失敗率也很低。