睡眠的重要性

You might be surprised to learn that just plain being awake creates toxic products in your brain. 你可能会惊讶地发现，绝对地清醒会让你的大脑产生有毒的物质。


　　How does the brain get rid of these poisons? Turns out that when you sleep, your brain cells shrink. This causes an increase in the space between your brain cells. It's like unblocking a stream. Fluid can flow past these cells and wash the toxins out. So sleep, which can sometimes seem like such a waste of time, is actually your brain's way of keeping itself clean and healthy. 大脑如何除掉这些有毒物质呢？ 原来当人们在睡觉的时候，大脑细胞会收缩。这样会增加脑内细胞之间的距离，这就像疏通了一条溪流，液体会在细胞空隙间流过，冲走有毒的物质。所以，睡觉这件事有时候看起来像是浪费时间，实际上是大脑保持清洁和健康的一种方式。

　　So, let's get right to a critical idea. Taking a test without getting enough sleep means you're operating with a brain that's got little metabolic toxins floating around in it. Poisons that make it so you can't think very clearly. It's kind of like trying to drive a car that's got sugar in its gas tank. Doesn't work too well. 那么，我们直奔主题吧。在睡眠不足的情况下参加考试，意味着你的大脑一直处于工作状态，以致少量代谢毒素残留在大脑之中，而这些有毒物质会让你思维混乱。这就好像你尝试驾驶一辆油缸里混着糖粒的汽车，它们是不能正常工作的。


　　In fact, getting too little sleep doesn't just make you do worse on tests, too little sleep, over too long of a time, can also be associated with all sorts of nasty conditions. Including headaches, depression, heart disease, diabetes, and just plain dying earlier. But sleep does more than just allow your brain to wash away toxins. It's actually important part of the memory and learning process. It's seems that during sleep your brain tidies up ideas and concepts your thinking about and learning. It erases the less important parts of memories and simultaneously strengthens areas that you need or want to remember. 事实上，少睡一点点不止会让你在考试中发挥失常，长时间的睡眠不足，更会让各种令人厌恶的情况发生。包括头疼、抑郁症、心脏类疾病、糖尿病，甚至寿命缩短。而良好的睡眠不仅仅会帮你的大脑祛除有毒物质，它还是记忆力和学习过程中很重要的一部分。这就好像你在睡觉的时候 你的大脑会将你学习和思考过的想法和概念进行整理，它会清除掉一些记忆中不太重要的部分，同时增强你需要或想要记住的区域的记忆。

　　During sleep your brain also rehearses some of the tougher parts of whatever you're trying to learn, going over and over neural patterns to deepen and strengthen them. Sleep has also been shown to make a remarkable difference in your ability to figure out difficult problems and to understand what you're trying to learn. It's as if the complete deactivation of the conscious you in the pre-frontal cortex at the forefront of your brain helps other areas of your brain start talking more easily to one another, allowing them to put together the neural solution to your learning task while you're sleeping. Of course, you must also plant the seed for your diffuse mode by first doing focused mode work. 在睡梦中，你的大脑也会将你所努力学习到的东西在神经中枢一遍遍排演以增强加深记忆。研究表明，睡眠对人们区分找出困难问题的能力和理解所学知识的能力有显著影响。这就像是将你的意识从大脑前额皮层中完全解放出来，帮助你的大脑的其他部分更轻松地沟通，让它们在你的睡梦中汇集神经系统，解决学习任务。当然，你首先必须通过做集中精力状态下的工作，在脑中搭建发散思维模型。


　　If you're going over what you're learning right before you take a nap or going to sleep for the evening you have an increased chance of dreaming about it. If you go even further and set it in mind that you want to dream about the material, it seems to improve your chances of dreaming about it still further. Dreaming about what you're studying can substantially enhance your ability to understand. It somehow consolidates your memories into easier to grasp chunks. 如果你在打个小盹或者晚上睡觉之前，复习一遍所学东西的话，可以有更大可能性梦到它。如果你更进一步，告诉自己你想要梦到这些内容的话 可能你梦到它的几率也会大大提高。梦见你所学的知识，本质上能够增强你的理解能力，在一定程度上，它可以将你的记忆整合成更易被掌握的组块信息。

　　And now time for a little sleep.

　　现在，该小睡一会了。

　　Relevant Readings

　　· Djonlagic, I., A. Rosenfeld, D. Shohamy, C. Myers, M. Gluck, and R. Stickgold. 'Sleep Enhances Category Learning.' Learning &

　　Memory 16, no. 12 (Dec 2009): 751-5.

　　· Durrant, S. J., S. A. Cairney, and P. A. Lewis. 'Overnight Consolidation Aids the Transfer of Statistical Knowledge from the Medial

　　Temporal Lobe to the Striatum.' Cerebral Cortex (Aug 14 2012).

　　· Eichenbaum, H. 'To Sleep, Perchance to Integrate.' PNAS , 104, no. 18 (May 1 2007): 7317-8.

　　· Ellenbogen, J .M., P.T. Hu, J .D. Payne, D. Titone, and M.P. Walker. 'Human Relational Memory Requires Time and Sleep.' PNAS , 104, no.

　　18 (2007): 7723-28.

　　· Erlacher, Daniel, and Michael Schredl. 'Practicing a Motor Task in a Lucid Dream Enhances Subsequent Performance: A Pilot Study.' The

　　S port Ps ychologis t, 24, no. 2 (2010): 157-67.

　　· Moss, R. The S ecre t His tory of Dreaming. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008.

　　· Scullin, M. K., and M. A. McDaniel. 'Remembering to Execute a Goal: Sleep on It!' Ps ychological S cience 21, no. 7 (J ul 2010): 1028-35.

　　· Stickgold,