Increasing numbers of people are asking for help with sleep disorders and some of them are doing rather strange things during the night.
越来越多的人因失眠问题而寻求帮助，而且其中有不少人夜里会做些非常奇怪的事情。
Specialist sleep clinics are treating more people with sleep disorders than ever before.
到专业睡眠治疗诊所接受治疗的失眠病人比以前多了很多。
It's not surprising. More than 30% of the UK population currently suffers from insomnia or another sleep disorder, according to the Mental Health Foundation. This can have serious mental and physical consequences.
这一点都不奇怪。据精神疾病健康基金会透露，目前在英国，超过30%的人口患有失眠症或其它睡眠障碍。这会对精神和生理造成严重影响。
Clinics say they are getting up to 50 new referrals a week. It's a fivefold increase in just a decade for some. This big rise has been put down to raised awareness of sleep disorders and more people reporting them.
据专业睡眠治疗诊所透露，他们每周接待50个新病人。对于一些诊所来说，这一数据较之10年前增长了1/5.
The clinics are also dealing with some strange new sleep behaviour, while other rather odd sleep disorders are becoming more common. So what are the weird things people do?
这些诊所也治疗了一些新的奇怪的睡眠行为，而且其他一些相当古怪的睡眠障碍变得越来越普遍。那么让我们来看看都有哪些？
Texting
发短信
Technology now plays a huge part in our lives so it's no shock that sleep experts are seeing new kinds of sleep behaviour related to it.
现在，科技在我们的生活中发挥着巨大的作用，因此对于睡眠专家发现一些与此相关的新的睡眠行为也不用觉得吃惊。
More people are reporting sending text messages during their sleep, says Dr Kirstie Anderson, who runs the Neurology Sleep Service for the Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust. Considering the number of Britons who now own a mobile phone - 92% according to Ofcom - it's not surprising. Many people also take them to bed.
柯思提·安德森医生为纽卡斯尔市的国民保健服务信托基金会经验一家神经系统睡眠障碍服务中心。他透露，越来越多的人说他们睡着后会发短信。英国现在拥有手机的人数——根据通信管理局统计数据，有92%——因此，这也不足为奇。许多人都把手机带上床。
"It is very common for people to do things in their sleep that they do repeatedly during the day, " says Anderson.
安德森说：“人们睡着后做一些他们白天重复做的事情非常正常。”
This is largely down to sleep disorders called parasomnias. These are unwanted behaviours that occur during sleep.
这一般可以归因为被称作异眠症的睡眠障碍。人们睡着后会做一些想不到的行为。
They can be as small as opening your eyes while asleep or, at the very extreme end, driving a car while sleeping. Anderson has even treated someone who carefully dismantled grandfather clocks while asleep.
这些行为小到睁着眼睛睡觉，大到睡着后开车。安德森曾经治疗过一个人，他睡着后小心翼翼地把他祖父的闹钟拆了。
What happens in our brains during such episodes is still something of a mystery. Not much research has been done, largely due to the fact that gathering data is very difficult.
这种时候我们的大脑到底如何运作仍然是个谜。关于这方面的研究很少，主要因为很难收集数据。
"The problem is people rarely do such acts under controlled conditions at a sleep clinic, " says sleep specialist Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Clinic. "But this area of research is going to really move forward in the next few years because we now have the necessary equipment to record people in their own homes."
爱丁堡睡眠诊所的主任克里斯·伊德科斯基医生说：“原因是在睡眠诊所的控制环境下病人很少做出这种行为。但是在接下来的几年时间内这方面研究将有个大的飞跃，因为我们现在有种设备，能够把人们在家里的行为记录下。”
Reassuringly, the texts people send when asleep often make no sense. While it is common for people to do things in their sleep that they do during the day, they do them more clumsily or inaccurately, says Anderson.
安德森说， 令人放心的是，病人睡着后所发的短信通常都是没有实质意义的短信。尽管他们睡着后做些白天常做事很常见，但那时候做事比较笨拙，缺乏准确性。
Eating
吃东西
Unexplained empty food wrappers and a messy kitchen are what some sleepwalkers face when they wake up. Often snacking in your sleep is not a big problem, but in more extreme cases it is classed as Nocturnal Eating Syndrome (NES). Again, increased awareness of the sleep disorder means more people are being referred to sleep clinics with it.
无法解释的食品空袋子和一片狼藉的厨房是梦游者醒来所面对的事情。睡着后吃零食一般不是什么大问题，但对于一些极端情况而言，则被归类于夜间饮食症候群（NES）。不过，对睡眠障碍越来越了解意味着将有越来越多的人去睡眠诊所接受治疗。
Sufferers can raid the kitchen several times a night but have no recollection when they wake up. Not only do they lose sleep but they can put on an excessive amount of weight, causing a whole range of problems mentally and physically. Other concerns include choking in their sleep.
病人一晚上可以突击厨房好几次，但醒来时都没有记忆。他们这样不但会缺少睡眠，还好增加体重，从而产生一系列的精神和生理问题。另一个值得注意的事是吃东西时噎住。
Like other strange nocturnal behaviour, sleep eating often happens when people experience parasomnias, which half a million Britons regularly do, according to Anderson. When it comes to eating in your sleep often it is related to what happens before bedtime.
据安德森透露，像其他一些奇怪的夜间活动一样，异眠症患者通常会睡着后吃东西，有五十万英国人有这种行为。谈到睡着后吃东西，这通常和睡前发生的事有关。
"Sleepwalkers will often do simple things that make some kind of sense, like eat when having gone to bed hungry or dieting during the day, " says Anderson.
安德森说；“梦游者通常做一些有理可循的简单事情，比如睡前觉得饿或白天节食的人会吃东西。”
In more complicated cases, where someone might cook a meal, the person is actually awake but will have no memory of what they have done. It's a type of amnesia, says Prof Jim Horne, from the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University.
比较复杂的情况是， 有人可能会做饭。这时候他实际上是醒着的，但却对所做的事没有记忆。拉夫堡大学的睡眠研究中心的杰姆·霍恩教授说，这是健忘症的一种。
Sex
性交
Sexsomnia, a condition where people have sex in their sleep, has only really been brought to the public's attention in recent years. As yet very little research has been done into it, say sleep experts, but more cases are being reported.
睡眠性交症是指人们睡梦中进行性行为，近几年已经引起了公众的关注。睡眠专家说，虽然有关这方面的研究还凤毛麟角，但报道的相关案例却越来越多。
It can become more frequent during times of stress or under the influence of alcohol or drugs and ranges from minor behaviour to full sexual intercourse, in some cases with serious consequences.
压力、酒精或药物的影响会增加发病几率，病症包括细微的性举动和完整的性交行为，有时会造出严重后果。
Idzikowski gives expert evidence at trials that involve serious sexual assaults and rape.
伊德科斯基医生在一些严重性侵犯和强奸案件审判中作为专家出庭作证。
He says sexsomnia is a parasomnia. It is most likely to occur in the "deep sleep" stage when the thinking and awareness part of the brain is switched off but not the part of the brain responsible for basic urges like having sex.
他说睡眠性交是一种深眠状态行为，这种行为极有可能在大脑思想和意识被切断的“深度”睡眠状态下发生，并非大脑负责驱动性爱的部分发出的指令。
"When you are in a deep sleep moral and rational decision-making do not occur.
“但你处于深度睡眠状态下，通常无法做出道德和理性的判定。”
"It constantly surprises me the type of sleep problems people live with for years. Often they don't realise they can get help."
“人们多年来一直患有这种睡眠问题一直让我很吃惊。他们通常觉得他们无法得到帮助。”
Stop breathing
停止呼吸
When sleepers stop breathing this is often caused by a sleep disorder known as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). While it is not a new sleep disorder, an increasing number of people are being referred to sleep clinics with it. As obesity is a contributing factor, experts expect numbers to keep on rising.
入眠者停止呼吸通常是一种称为阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）的睡眠障碍引起的。这种睡眠障碍已经不是新闻了，因此越来越多的人去睡眠诊所接受治疗。由于肥胖是造成这种症状的主要原因，专家期望大家保持体重。
Usually accompanied with very loud snoring, OSA occurs when the throat muscles collapse and block the airways and stop people from breathing - the apnoea. After recently undergoing tests as part of the new BBC One series Goodnight Britain Paul Asbury, from King's Lynn, found out that he regularly stopped breathing in his sleep for up to 26 seconds at a time.
阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停是因为咽喉部肌肉松弛阻塞气道而阻止呼吸——呼吸暂停，还通常伴有很大的鼻鼾声。在经过BBC新的系列节目——晚安英国最近进行的测试后，来自金斯林的保罗·阿斯博瑞发现他入睡后经常呼吸暂停，每次长达26秒钟。
"I was really scared when I was told, " he says. "It made me panic to think I regularly stopped breathing and for that long. I thought I had a snoring problem but it was much more serious."
他说：“听到这个消息我真得感到很害怕。想到我睡着后经常停止呼吸并且还那么长时间，我就觉得很痛苦。我本来觉得我有打呼噜的毛病，但现在问题严重得多。”
These breaks in breathing woke the 47-year-old lorry driver up to 50 times an hour during the night. In extreme cases it can be up 80 times, says Idzikowski.
伊德科斯基医生说呼吸暂停问题让一位47岁的卡车司机夜里每小时醒来50次之多，更有甚者高达80次。
"The sufferer will often not remember waking up. This is because the brain does not quite connect with the body, so the person is awake but doesn't know it. It can take up to a minute for the brain to connect with the body causing people to be conscious of waking up.
“患者通常不记得自己醒来过。这是因为大脑并非与身体完全连接，因此当人醒了却不知道。大脑通常直到一分钟后来能和身体连接起来，从而意识到自己醒来了。”
"The result is that sufferers get very little deep sleep which is one of the restorative phases of the sleep cycle. In the morning they usually feel incredibly tired, " says Idzikowski.
“这会导致患者不能达到深度睡眠（睡眠周期中恢复阶段的一种）。因此早上起来通常会感到极为疲惫。”伊德科斯基医生说。
This can have serious consequences if people are doing things like operating machinery. Asbury's disorder is being treated using a special face mask, which is working so far.
如果人们做一些像操作机械这样的工作，就会导致严重的后果。阿斯博瑞使用一种特殊面具治疗他的睡眠问题，这种面具至今还很有用。
Exploding head syndrome
爆炸声感综合症
You're peacefully falling asleep and suddenly it's like a bomb has gone off in your head. It's exploding head syndrome, when a sudden and incredibly loud noise comes from within your head.
当你安详地入睡时，突然头脑里好像有颗炸弹爆炸一样。这种大脑里突然出现巨大噪音的症状就叫爆炸声感综合症。
It's another parasomnia event. Sufferers have described the loud noise as sounding like a bomb explosion, a thunderclap and lightning or a gunshot. It is painless but can leave the person distressed. There are reports of people running to their windows to look out as they think a bomb has gone off nearby.
这是另一种异眠症。患者把巨大噪音描述成像炸弹爆炸、电闪雷鸣或枪声一样。这虽然不会造成痛感但也会使患者感到痛苦。有报道称有人跑到窗户边向外看因为他们觉得附近有炸弹爆炸了。
Some sleep experts say it is very rare but Anderson says cases have been referred to her in recent years. It is really the sensory equivalent of the motor start [the hypnic or sudden jerk accompanied by a falling feeling] we all sometimes get as we are going off to sleep, she says.
一些睡眠专家称这种案例很少见，但安德森说最近几年她却碰到了不少。她说，当我们入睡时，我们有时候会听到感觉上就像发动机发动一样的声音（睡前或突然的痉挛及下坠的感觉）。
"People hear a really loud bang or explosion as they are drifting off to sleep, and then work out that it can't be external as no-one else heard it. Sometimes people get bright flashes of light.
“当患者逐渐入睡时会听到一声真正的巨响或爆炸声，之后才明白实际上外面并没有声响，因为其他人都没听到。也有人有时会感到一道强光闪过。”
"It is entirely benign, but can be alarming and mostly we simply reassure sufferers. Sometimes medication is used if people are very bothered and therefore worry about falling asleep and make it worse."
“这完全对身体无害，但却令人心烦。我们基本上可以做到使患者感到安心。但如果有时候患者感到非常烦恼，担忧入睡问题，从而造成更加烦躁时，我们会给患者使用药物治疗。”
Often there is no pattern to episodes, but they can go on for years and be a significant disruption to quality of life.
通常这种症状没有固定模式，一般会持续几年，严重影响生活质量。
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