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.

回想微軟早年的歲月，當我們必須要交付一個軟件時，我們經常通宵工作。有一次或兩次，我連續(xù)兩天熬夜。我知道當我主要靠咖啡因和腎上腺素撐著的時候，我的狀態(tài)不會太好。但當時的我癡迷于工作，我覺得睡太多覺是懶惰的表現。

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.

當我讀完馬修·沃克的《為什么要睡覺》，我意識到自己通宵工作，加之幾乎沒睡夠過八個小時，這對我造成了極大的傷害。沃克是加州大學伯克利分校人類睡眠科學中心的主任，他解釋了忽視睡眠會如何削弱你的創(chuàng)造力、解決問題的能力、決策能力、學習能力、記憶力、心臟健康、精神健康、情緒健康、免疫系統(tǒng)，甚至縮短你的壽命。沃克寫道：“整個工業(yè)國家正在遭受睡眠減少帶來的毀滅性影響?！?/p>

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.

我并不完全接受沃克的這份報告，例如他所聲明的關于睡眠不足與阿茨海默癥之間的強聯系。為了使我們所有人都醒悟關于睡眠太少帶來的危害，有時他會用科學還未驗證的事實進行論述。但是，即使你會對此書有一些微詞，《為什么要睡覺》仍然是一本重要且引人入勝的好書。

Because this is a short review, I’ll answer a few questions that I suspect are top of mind for you.

鑒于這是一篇短評，我將回答幾個我認為你會首先想到的問題。

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.”

每人每晚真的需要七或八小時的睡眠嗎？答案是：你基本上確實需要這么多睡眠，即便你已經說服自己不這樣做。借用底特律亨利福特醫(yī)院托馬斯·羅斯醫(yī)生的話：“靠五小時甚至更少時間睡眠存活下來且沒有因此造成任何損害的人數，去掉小數點四舍五入，結果是零。”

Why do we sleep? After all, when you’re sleeping—;and all animals do—;you 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 fitness—;just in ways we can’t see.

為什么我們要睡覺？在你睡覺的時候，與所有動物一樣，你不能狩獵、聚會、進食、繁殖或防御自己。然而沃克的結論是，睡眠的演化性優(yōu)勢要遠遠大過這些消極影響。簡而言之，睡眠產生出復雜的影響神經系統(tǒng)的化學物質，通過不同方式改善大腦的功能。此外，它“增強我們的免疫系統(tǒng)，幫助抵抗惡性腫瘤，預防感染，以及防止各種疾病。”換句話說，睡眠極大地增強了我們的演化適應性，以我們肉眼看不見的方式。

What can I do to improve my sleep hygiene?

我能做什么來改善睡眠健康？

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.

替換掉臥室里所有的LED燈泡，因為它們發(fā)出對睡眠破壞性最強的藍光。

如果你足夠幸運到可以控制居所的溫度，請在你準備入睡時將臥室溫度下調至65華氏度（譯注：約18.3攝氏度）。據沃克所言，“若要成功進入睡眠……你的核心體溫需要下降2至3華氏度（譯注：約1.1-1.8攝氏度）”。

限制飲酒，因為酒精不是助眠劑，這與普遍的認知正好相反。盡管它可能有助于誘發(fā)睡意，但沃克說：“酒精是快速眼動睡眠（譯注：睡眠的一個階段。在這個階段里，人的大腦非?；钴S，眼球會快速轉動，人也很容易做夢）的最強抑制劑之一?！?/p>

如果你可以中午小憩片刻，就像我們的祖先過去常常做以及一些地中海及南美群落仍然在做的那樣，你應該這樣做（但不要超過下午3點）。這將有可能提升你的創(chuàng)造力和冠狀動脈健康，以及延長你的壽命。

It took me a little longer than usual to finish Why We Sleep—;ironically, 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.

我花了比平常更多的時間讀完《為什么要睡覺》—;—;這聽上去有點諷刺，因為我總是遵循沃克的建議，比我習慣的時間更早一些將書放下，以便在晚上能有更好的睡眠。但關于這項地球人都需要的基本活動，我從沃克那里學到了很多。我想他的這本書也將教會你很多。