雅思Test 4 Passage 1 阅读译文

2023年12月4日发(作者：解怎么组词)

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'Sleep comes more easily than it returns.'

— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

入睡容易，醒过来难 —— 维克多.雨果《悲惨世界》

A It is estimated that one in three adults in westernid countries

regularly wakes up in the middle of the night and has difficulty getting

back to sleep. Physicians often diagno 'insomnia' and prescribe sleeping

pills, but the often have side effects such as negative interactions with

food, drink or other drugs, and most are habit-forming. Cessation of the

medication frequently caus unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, too,

including panic attacks, mood-swings, and even heightened sleep

disturbance. Is there a way to treat insomnia without such debilitating

conquences?

据估计，在西方国家中，有1/3的成年人经常会在半夜醒来，之后再难继续入睡。医生经常会作出失眠症的诊断，然后开安眠药。但是这些药通常是有副作用的，比如说和食物、饮料或其他药物发生不良反应，而且这些药大多数还容易上瘾。如果停止用药，又会导致一些不良症状的反弹，比如产生恐慌、情绪波动，甚至是更严重的失眠。那么，有没有一种方法可以治疗失眠，同时又不会产生这些不良影响呢？

B The historian A. Roger Ekirch takes a different approach to

nocturnal awakening. He maintains it is biologically instinctive and

innate and that it is the ideal of the modern-era condend eight-hour

sleep regime that is exceptional. Tho people who have so-called

insomnia may just be sleeping in the biphasic mode that was the norm for

their ancestors: eight hours of sleep split into two chunks by a period of

wakefulness which lasted an hour or longer. According to Ekirch, during

this sleepless pha, some people might have stayed in bed and prayed,

recalled their dreams, or chatted to their partners, while others may have

got up to do chores or drop in on the people next door.

历史学家A.罗杰.埃克奇针对半夜醒来有一套不同的理论。他坚持认为，那是一种生物本能和天性，是一种在现代时期压缩的八小时特殊睡眠机制。这些有所谓的失眠症的人只是在以一种两阶段模式睡觉，而这正是他们祖先的睡眠标准——八小时的睡眠由一个时长一小时或更久的觉醒分成两块。根据埃克奇的观点，在这段醒着的时间里，有的人可能会待在床上进行祈祷、回想梦境，或者和父母聊天，另外一些人则可能会起床做一些家务杂事，或者去拜访隔壁的人。

C Archives from the pre-industrial era mention gmented sleep as

'first sleep' or 'deep sleep' and 'cond sleep' or 'morning sleep'. The change in sleep routines, which started during the Industrial Revolution,

mainly came about through the invention of the incandescent bulb. This

invention, cheap and available to even the poorest residences, lengthened

our daytime activities, such as reading and playing games, and reduced

the period of time for sleep. As a result, the modern worker or student

tries to squeeze sleep into a continuous period of ven or eight hours,

even though this does not conform to natural circadian rhythms.

Anthropologists confirm Ekirch's hypothesis by reporting that inhabitants

of undeveloped regions of the world that are without the benefit of

electric lighting still follow the natural rhythm of a divided sleep pattern.

据工业时代之前的档案记载，这种分段的睡眠被称作“初次睡眠”、“深度睡眠”、和“二次睡眠（晨睡）”。睡眠习惯自工业革命期间就发生改变，主要则是因为白炽灯泡的发明。这种灯泡非常便宜，即使是最穷的人家也能买得起。这就大大增加了人们的白天活动时间，比如说阅读和玩游戏，同时也就相应地减少了睡眠的时间。于是，现代工人和学生就把睡眠压缩成在一段连续的七八小时时间内，尽管这并不符合自然生物节律。据人类学家报道，世界上一些欠发达地区的居民没有电灯，他们现在仍然采用这种遵循自然节律的分段式睡眠模式。这无疑是对埃克奇假说的支撑和巩固。

D Ekirch's hypothesis was corroborated by sleep expert Thomas

Wehr in the 1990s. His study kept volunteers in the dark for 14 hours

each night (a simulation of wintertime exposure to light and darkness in

bygone days). The subjects moved progressively towards a biphasic sleep

pattern, taking a couple of hours to doze off and then sleeping in two

distinct gments of four hours each with an interval of wakefulness in

the middle. He construed from this that bifurcated sleep is not only

completely natural but also beneficial, becau this kind of sleeping

facilitates the recall of dreams, which 'afford people a pathway to their

subconscious'. Our predecessors actually considered their dream life to be

a crucial component of their lives.

睡眠专家托马斯韦尔在上世纪90年代对埃克奇的假说进行了确证。在他的研究中，志愿者们每天晚上有14小时都处于黑暗之中（模仿以前人们冬季暴露在白昼和黑夜的时间长度），最后他们逐渐养成了一个双阶段睡眠模式。起初是有几个小时的失眠，之后逐渐变成两段分明的四小时睡眠，每段睡眠中间都有一段醒着的时间。他由此分析认为，分段式睡眠不仅仅是完全合乎自然节律，还对人们非常有益。因为这种睡眠模式能够帮助人们回想起梦境，而这些梦境其实是一种有意识的指引。事实上，我们的祖先把他们的梦境生活当成生活中非常重要的一部分。

E Sleep is esntial and it is by no means a passive state. Sleep

scientists have revealed that there are two fundamental cycles of activity, classified as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye

movement (NREM) sleep. The latter consists of four phas. The first

pha, which lasts five to ten minutes, is the 'falling asleep' stage and

sometimes there is actually a n of falling, which often caus a

sudden muscle contraction or jerk. One is easily awoken during this stage.

Then comes an interlude of light sleep where the heart rate slows and

body temperature drops - the body is getting ready for the deep sleep,

which occurs in the third and fourth stages of NREM slumber. This is

slow-wave or 'delta' sleep and a person woken at this stage may feel quite

disorientated. This period of deep sleep is vital for the body to restore

itlf. During this time, not only does the body carry out repair and

regeneration of nerves, bones and muscles, but it also fortifies and repairs

the immune system.

睡眠是非常必要的，但绝不是被动的。睡眠科学家表示，睡眠过程中有两种基本的循环活动，即浅睡期（此时会做梦）和深睡期（眼球活动减慢）。后一种包含四个阶段。第一阶段叫“入睡阶段”，通常持续5-10分钟。在这一阶段有时会有一种跌落感，并通常导致肌肉的突然收缩或痉挛。在这个阶段是很容易惊醒的。第二阶段就是轻度睡眠。在该阶段，心跳减慢，体温降低。这是身体在为第三、四阶段的深度睡眠做准备。这是一个缓慢的入睡过程，在这个阶段醒来的人往往会感到非常迷惘，不知所措。这个阶段的睡眠对于身体的恢复至关重要。在此期间，身体会修复我们的神经、骨头和肌肉，同时还会加强我们的免疫系统。

F The eyes can be en to move rapidly beneath the eyelids during

REM sleep, which ensues after approximately an hour and a half of

NREM sleep cycles. A faster and more erratic heart rate and shallow

breathing are typical of this state, and brain activity intensifies, giving

ri to vivid dreaming; paradoxically, the major voluntary muscle groups

are immobilid, albeit for good reason - thrashing about while asleep

could result in rious injury. Although the purpo of dreaming is not yet

fully comprehended, the hypothesis is that it is vital for learning and

memory (as the regions of the brain are stimulated); indeed, studies

have shown that when candidates are denied REM sleep, their memory of

recent learning is impaired. Deprivation of REM sleep also leads to

anxiety and migraine headaches.

在浅睡期，眼珠在眼皮底下迅速转动，这在进入深睡期大约一个半小时后还会接着发生。在此阶段，心律变得更快、更不稳定，呼吸变得更浅，头脑活动加强，由此导致生动的梦境出现。奇怪的是，主要的随意肌群却停止了活动。或许对此最好的解释当是，睡着时若随意摆动容易导致严重的受伤。尽管人们对梦境的作用还未完全理解，但假说认为梦境对学习和记忆是非常重要的（因为它刺激了头脑的那些区域）。事实上，研究已经表明，当剥夺测试者浅睡期睡眠的时候，他们对近期学习的记忆就会减退。同时，浅睡期睡眠不足还会导致焦虑和偏头痛。

G Sleep specialists agree that without adequate REM and NREM

sleep, people's thought process are likely to be compromid, and they

may suffer from impaired memory, fatigue, depression, a weakened

immune respon, and heightened susceptibility to pain, amongst other

negative conquences. Yet modern-day humans remain chronically sleep

deprived, notwithstanding the results of this rearch and its acceptance

by many psychiatrists and sleep consultants. Why is the general populace

so loath to relinquish its monophasic sleep schedule and enjoy the

benefits of a biphasic schedule? It is certain that attitudes to employment

responsibilities and social commitments would have to be altered before

such a huge behavioural paradigm shift could occur and individuals could

allot more time to restful, restorative sleep.

睡眠专家也表示，如果没有充足的浅睡期和熟睡期睡眠，人们的思维过程将受到影响。同时，他们还可能会出现记忆减退、易感疲劳、抑郁症、免疫下降、痛感增加，以及其他不良症状。尽管这一研究有着重这样的结果，并得到了许多精神病学家和睡眠顾问的认可，但现代社会的人们还是习惯性地睡眠不足。诚然，要想如此巨大的一个行为模式得到转变，并使得个人能有更多的时间投入到安静有益的睡眠，必须先改变人们对待工作和社会责任的态度。

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