為什么有些人睡得少干得多？
Melinda Beck explains why for a small number of people getting a full night of sleep is a waste of time and the reasons behind it.
對于少數(shù)一些人來說，長夜漫漫皆睡眠就是浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，梅琳達(dá)·貝克（Melinda Veck）對此作出了解釋，并披露了背后的原因。
For a small group of people—perhaps just 1% to 3% of the population—sleep is a waste of time.
對于一小撮人（比例也許是總?cè)丝诘?%到3%）來說，睡覺純屬浪費(fèi)時(shí)間。
Natural "short sleepers," as they're officially known, are night owls and early birds simultaneously. They typically turn in well after midnight, then get up just a few hours later and barrel through the day without needing to take naps or load up on caffeine.
他們的正式名稱叫做“短睡者”，天生的“短睡者”既是夜貓子又是早起鳥。他們通常午夜過后才上床睡覺，幾個(gè)鐘頭之后就起床干活，整整一天都不需要小憩一下或充杯咖啡。
They are also energetic, outgoing, optimistic and ambitious, according to the few researchers who have studied them. The pattern sometimes starts in childhood and often runs in families.
按照一些研究人員的說法，他們還精力充沛、性格開朗且樂觀進(jìn)取。有時(shí)候在他們兒時(shí)就顯露出這種模式，并通常會(huì)在家庭中呈現(xiàn)類似情況。
While it's unclear if all short sleepers are high achievers, they do have more time in the day to do things, and keep finding more interesting things to do than sleep, often doing several things at once.
盡管是否所有的短睡者皆為成功人士尚不得而知，但是在工作日里面他們的確有更多的時(shí)間去做事，并總會(huì)去尋找比睡覺更有趣的東西，他們常常會(huì)同時(shí)去做幾件事情。
Nobody knows how many natural short sleepers are out there. "There aren't nearly as many as there are people who think they're short sleepers," says Daniel J. Buysse, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional group.
沒人知道天生短睡者的數(shù)量有多少。“這個(gè)數(shù)量幾乎跟自認(rèn)為是短睡者的數(shù)量一樣多”，丹尼爾·J·拜瑟（Daniel J.Buysse）說。拜瑟是匹茲堡大學(xué)醫(yī)療中心的一名精神病學(xué)家，曾任一個(gè)專業(yè)團(tuán)體美國睡眠醫(yī)學(xué)會(huì)的主席。
Out of every 100 people who believe they only need five or six hours of sleep a night, only about five people really do, Dr. Buysse says. The rest end up chronically sleep deprived, part of the one-third of U.S. adults who get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, according to a report last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
每100名自認(rèn)為每晚只需睡5或6個(gè)小時(shí)的人里面只有5個(gè)人的確如此，拜瑟博士說。根據(jù)疾病控制與預(yù)防中心上個(gè)月的一份報(bào)告，其余的最后都是習(xí)慣性失眠，是美國睡眠少于建議的每晚7小時(shí)的三分之一人群的一部分。
To date, only a handful of small studies have looked at short sleepers—in part because they're hard to find. They rarely go to sleep clinics and don't think they have a disorder.
迄今為止，只有少量小規(guī)模的研究是面向短睡者的——部分是由于他們難以捕捉。他們很少去睡眠診所，也不認(rèn)為自己睡眠失調(diào)。
A few studies have suggested that some short sleepers may have hypomania, a mild form of mania with racing thoughts and few inhibitions. "These people talk fast. They never stop. They're always on the up side of life," says Dr. Buysse. He was one of the authors of a 2001 study that had 12 confirmed short sleepers and 12 control subjects keep diaries and complete numerous questionnaires about their work, sleep and living habits.One survey dubbed "Attitude for Life" that was actually a test for hypomania. The natural short sleepers scored twice as high as the controls.
一些研究指出，部分短睡者也許具有輕度躁狂，一種帶有思維跳躍和部分抑郁癥狀的溫和形式的狂躁癥。“這些人講話很快。從不停歇?？偸菢酚^向上”，拜瑟博士說。他是2001年的一項(xiàng)研究的作者之一，該項(xiàng)研究有12位確定的短睡者及12位對照受試者，讓他們堅(jiān)持寫日記，并就其工作、生活和習(xí)慣完成若干份問卷調(diào)查。其中一份名為“生活態(tài)度”的調(diào)查實(shí)際上是一份輕度躁狂的測試問卷。天生短睡者的得分比對照組高出了一倍。
There is currently no way people can teach themselves to be short sleepers. Still, scientists hope that by studying short sleepers, they can better understand how the body regulates sleep and why sleep needs vary so much in humans.
目前人們還沒有辦法通過自我學(xué)習(xí)成為短睡者。盡管如此，通過研究短睡者，科學(xué)家希望能更好地理解人體是如何調(diào)節(jié)睡眠的，以及為何不同的人對睡眠的需求會(huì)如此不同。
"My long-term goal is to someday learn enough so we can manipulate the sleep pathways without damaging our health," says human geneticist Ying-Hui Fu at the University of California-San Francisco. "Everybody can use more waking hours, even if you just watch movies."
“我的長期目標(biāo)是，有朝一日能掌握足夠的知識，從而在不損害健康的前提下操縱睡眠的神經(jīng)通路”，傅穎慧（Ying-Hui Fu）說。傅是舊金山加利福尼亞大學(xué)的人類遺傳學(xué)家。“人人都可以利用更多的清醒時(shí)間，哪怕只是看看電影”。
Dr. Fu was part of a research team that discovered a gene variation, hDEC2, in a pair of short sleepers in 2009. They were studying extreme early birds when they noticed that two of their subjects, a mother and daughter, got up naturally about 4 a.m. but also went to bed past midnight.
2009年，一個(gè)研究小組在一對短睡者身上發(fā)現(xiàn)了hDEC2基因變異，傅博士是該小組的成員之一。他們在研究起得特別早的人時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)，被試者中的兩位，一位是母親，另一個(gè)是女兒，都是睡到凌晨4點(diǎn)就自然醒，但卻都是午夜過后才入睡的。
Genetic analyses spotted one gene variation common to them both. The scientists were able to replicate the gene variation in a strain of mice and found that the mice needed less sleep than usual, too.
遺傳分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，她們有一種共同的基因變異。科學(xué)家能夠在一種老鼠的身上復(fù)制這一基因變異，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種老鼠需要的睡眠時(shí)間也比平常少了。
News of their finding spurred other people to write the team, saying they were natural short sleepers and volunteering to be studied. The researchers are recruiting more candidates and hope to find more gene variations they have in common.
他們發(fā)現(xiàn)的消息激發(fā)了其他人寫信給這一小組，聲稱自己是天生短睡者并志愿給他們當(dāng)小白鼠。研究人員正在招募更多的候選對象并希望從中發(fā)現(xiàn)更多的共同基因變異。
Potential candidates for the gene study are sent multiple questionnaires and undergo a long structured phone interview. Those who make the initial screening wear monitors to track their sleep patterns at home. Christopher Jones, a University of Utah neurologist and sleep scientist who oversees the recruiting, says there is one question that is more revealing than anything else: When people do have a chance to sleep longer, on weekends or vacation, do they still sleep only five or six hours a night? People who sleep more when they can are not true short sleepers, he says.
他們向基因研究潛在的候選對象發(fā)放了多份調(diào)查問卷，并進(jìn)行了一段很長的有組織的電話采訪。隨后他們給通過初步甄選的人佩戴上監(jiān)視器以便跟蹤其在家中的睡眠模式。負(fù)責(zé)招募工作的克里斯托弗·瓊斯（Christopher Jones）是猶他大學(xué)的一位神經(jīng)學(xué)家和睡眠科學(xué)家，他說有一個(gè)問題更能說明問題：那就是，當(dāng)他們有機(jī)會(huì)睡得更久的時(shí)候，比如說周末或假期時(shí)間，他們是否仍每晚只睡5個(gè)小時(shí)？那些在有可能的時(shí)候睡得更多的人并非真正的短睡者。他說。
To date, Dr. Jones says he has identified only about 20 true short sleepers, and he says they share some fascinating characteristics. Not only are their circadian rhythms different from most people, so are their moods (very upbeat) and their metabolism (they're thinner than average, even though sleep deprivation usually raises the risk of obesity). They also seem to have a high tolerance for physical pain and psychological setbacks.
瓊斯博士說，到目前為止，他已經(jīng)確定了20位真正的短睡者，他還說這些人具有某些有趣的共同特征。他們不僅生理節(jié)律與大多數(shù)人相異，其情緒（非常樂觀）和代謝（比平均水平更瘦，即便睡眠失調(diào)通常會(huì)導(dǎo)致肥胖風(fēng)險(xiǎn)）也與眾不同。對于生理疼痛和心理挫折，他們似乎還具備很高的耐受性。
"They encounter obstacles, they just pick themselves up and try again," Dr. Jones says.
“他們在遭受挫折的時(shí)候會(huì)愈挫愈勇”，瓊斯博士說。
Some short sleepers say their sleep patterns go back to childhood and some see the same patterns starting in their own kids, such as giving up naps by age 2. As adults, they gravitate to different fields, but whatever they do, they do full bore, Dr. Jones says.
某些短睡者說自己的睡眠模式回到了童年時(shí)代，有些則說相同的模式在自己還是孩子的時(shí)候就開始了，比如兩歲的時(shí)候就放棄午睡。作為成年人，他們遍布不同的領(lǐng)域，但是不管做什么，他們都是全力以赴，瓊斯博士說。
"Typically, at the end of a long, structured phone interview, they will admit that they've been texting and surfing the Internet and doing the crossword puzzle at the same time, all on less than six hours of sleep," says Dr. Jones. "There is some sort of psychological and physiological energy to them that we don't understand."
“一般而言，在冗長的有組織電話采訪結(jié)束之時(shí)，他們都會(huì)承認(rèn)自己還在一邊寫短信、一邊上網(wǎng)沖浪，同時(shí)還在做字謎游戲，這一切都是在睡眠時(shí)間不足6小時(shí)的情況下進(jìn)行的”，瓊斯博士說：“他們身上一定具備某種不為人所知的生理和心理能量”。
Drs. Jones and Fu stress that there is no genetic test for short sleeping. Ultimately, they expect to find that many different genes play a role, which may in turn reveal more about the complex systems that regulate sleep in humans.
瓊斯博士還有傅博士強(qiáng)調(diào)，沒有對短睡進(jìn)行基因測試。他們期望最終能找到許多不同的基因發(fā)揮的作用，也許從中能揭示出更多有關(guān)這一復(fù)雜系統(tǒng)調(diào)節(jié)人類睡眠的秘密。
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Leonardo da Vinci were too busy to sleep much, according to historical accounts. Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison came close but they were also fond of taking naps, which may disqualify them as true short sleepers.
根據(jù)史書記載，本杰明·富蘭克林（Benjamin Franklin）、托馬斯·杰弗遜（Thomas Jeffson）及達(dá)芬奇是因?yàn)樘Χ鵁o法睡太久。溫斯頓·丘吉爾和托馬斯·愛迪生比較接近，但是他們也喜歡午睡，這也許會(huì)剝奪其成為真正短睡者的資格。
Nowadays, some short sleepers gravitate to fields like blogging, videogame design and social media, where their sleep habits come in handy. "If I could find a way to do it, I'd never sleep," says Dave Hatter, a software developer in Fort Wright, Ky. He typically sleeps just four to five hours a night, up from two to three hours a few years ago.
現(xiàn)在，一些短睡者被吸引到諸如博客、視頻游戲設(shè)計(jì)以及社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)之類的領(lǐng)域，這正是他們的睡眠習(xí)慣發(fā)揮作用的地方。“如果我能找到不睡覺的辦法的話我永遠(yuǎn)也不睡”，戴夫·哈特（Dave Hatter）是這樣說的。哈特是肯塔基州萊特堡的一名軟件開發(fā)人員。他每晚一般只睡5個(gè)小時(shí)，這已經(jīng)比幾年前的兩到三個(gè)小時(shí)要高了。
"It's crazy, but it works for me," says Eleanor Hoffman, an overnight administrator at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York who would rather spend afternoons playing mahjong with friends than sleep anymore than four hours. Sometimes she calls her cousin, Linda Cohen, in Pittsburgh about 4 a.m., since she knows she'll be wide awake as well—just like they were as kids.
“這很瘋狂，但對我有效”，埃莉諾·霍夫曼（Eleanor Hoffman）說。埃莉諾是紐約貝爾維尤醫(yī)療中心的一位值夜管理人員，下午的時(shí)候，她寧愿跟朋友打麻將也不肯多睡上一會(huì)（超過4小時(shí)）。有時(shí)候她在凌晨4點(diǎn)鐘會(huì)給匹茲堡的堂妹琳達(dá)·科恩（Linda Cohen）打電話，因?yàn)樗溃惨粯忧逍训煤堋拖袼齻儍簳r(shí)一樣。
"I come to life about 11 at night," says Mrs. Cohen, who owns a chain of toy stores with her husband and gets up early in the morning with ease. "If I went to bed earlier, I'd feel like half my life was missing."
科恩女士跟丈夫擁有一家玩具連鎖店，她輕而易舉就能早早起床。“我是大概晚上11點(diǎn)左右出生的”，科恩女士說：“如果上床太早，我就會(huì)覺得半個(gè)人生不見了”。
Are you a short sleeper? For more information on the genetic study, contact Dr. Jones at chris.jones@hsc.utah.edu
你是短睡者嗎？若想了解更多有關(guān)基因研究的信息，請聯(lián)絡(luò)瓊斯博士，其郵箱是chris.jones@hsc.utah.edu
Write to Melinda Beck at HealthJournal@wsj.com致信梅琳達(dá)·貝克請至HealthJournal@wsj.com
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