Insomnia can damage your health. Photograph: Tony Stone
失眠损害健康。
Poor sleep – as anyone who suffers from it knows – can make life a misery. And it is taking its toll on the nation's health. According to the recently published Great British Sleep Survey, more than 51% of us now struggle to get a good night's sleep, with women three times more likely to be affected than men.
“睡不着”，正像许多人都会碰到的一样，可以让生活一团糟。并且失眠甚至还危及整个英国的全民健康水平。 根据最新的大不列颠睡眠调查显示，超过51%的民众在为有一个良好的睡眠而发愁，女士受到失眠影响的几率更是男士的三倍。
Evidence collected from 20, 000-plus adults between March 2010 and this June shows that 93% of insomniacs report low energy levels and 83% complain of mood swings. Some 77% find it hard to concentrate, 64% say they are less productive at work, and 55% report relationship difficulties.
从2010年3月到6月抽查的超过2万名成人数据显示，93%的失眠患者表示浑身乏力，而83%的人则抱怨情绪波动。有大约77%的人发现难以集中注意力，64%的人出现工作效率低下， 55%则会反映交际障碍。
Even worse, persistent poor sleep can increase the risk of developing conditions including diabetes, depression, high blood pressure and strokes. Research at the University of British Columbia suggests every hour of sleep lost at night may cost us one IQ point the following day. And it is often a long-term issue: a quarter of people with insomnia have suffered from it for more than 10 years.
更严重的是，长期的睡眠不足还会提高患糖尿病、抑郁症、高血压以及中风等疾病的几率。英属哥伦比亚大学研究显示晚上每少睡一个小时，第二天我们的智商就下降一分。而且失眠往往又都是长期的，四分之一的失眠患者表示他们已经苦苦挣扎十几年。
In Britain, overwhelmingly, we treat poor sleep with medication: the NHS spent a staggering £50m on sleeping pills last year, with 15.3m prescriptions dispensed across England, Scotland and Wales (up 17% in three years). But many pills have undesirable side-effects and the survey's findings suggest they do not solve long-term sleep problems: 42% of people who have taken them on and off have continued to have poor sleep for more than a decade.
在英国，治疗睡眠我们仍普遍采用药物： 英国国民健康保险去年光安眠药就花费了令人咂舌的5千万英镑同时1530万的处方药从英格兰、苏格兰和威尔士开出（预计三年内这一数字会上涨17%)。但是很多安眠药都有副作用，并且并不能根治长期失眠：42%的人在断断续续地吃了一段时间安眠药后，仍然还是失眠十余年。
So how can we do something about poor sleep without pills? Most people focus first on what Colin Espie, professor of clinical psychology and director of the University of Glasgow Sleep Centre, calls "sleep hygiene": our pre-bed routine, and the physical environment in which we try to sleep. Espie believes these factors account for a mere 10% of sleep problems: "most people with insomnia have better sleep hygiene than easy sleepers". But most sleep experts concur that the following do make a difference.
那么我们究竟应该怎么样才能不依靠小药片而又疗效显著呢？很多数人首先就对拉斯哥大学睡眠研究中心主任和临床心理学Espie教授提出的“睡眠卫生条件”概念产生了关注：指的是上床前的一系列活动和睡觉时周围的物理环境。尽管Espie教授自己也确信这些因素产生的影响只占总体睡眠问题的10%，他说：“很多患有失眠症的人可能睡眠卫生条件比一般人还要好呢。” 但是大多数的催眠专家都确信良好的睡眠卫生条件确实能给睡眠带来些许帮助。
Light. A dark room is important to a good sleep. Also try to avoid "blue light" less than two hours before bed: research by the Lighting Research Centre at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State suggests light from laptop, tablet and smartphone screens tricks us into thinking it is daytime and keeps us alert, although this has been disputed. Bedrooms should be a comfortable temperature (around 18C), quiet and well-ventilated, with comfortable beds and pillows
光线： 想睡个好觉，黑暗的房间自然十分重要。而且在睡觉前两小时内尽量避免“蓝光”：纽约伦斯勒理工学院光线研究中心的研究报告表面笔记本电脑、掌上电脑和智能手机屏幕上的光线能够让我们的身体误认为现在是白天从而变得警醒，当然这一结论现在仍有争议。卧室最好控制在18摄氏度，通风要好，当然舒服的床垫和枕头也很重要。
Food, drink, exercise. Anything that stimulates the system – such as caffeine (although some experimental studies show a cup of coffee may lengthen the time taken to drop off by just three minutes), alcohol, chocolate, tobacco, a heavy meal or strenuous exercise – will make it harder to get to sleep. Indigestible foods are obviously best avoided; carbohydrates can promote serotonin, which aids sleep. Aim for a regular, balanced diet and no late-night excess. Twenty minutes a day of exercise will make a big difference to your sleep, but avoid it just before bed.
饮食和运动： 任何对我们人体系统有刺激性的，诸如咖啡（尽管一些实验表明一杯咖啡只会让我们晚3分钟进入睡眠）、酒精、巧克力、烟草、油腻辛辣的餐食以及剧烈活动等等，都会让我们难以入睡。难以消化的食物也明显是应该避免的，碳水化合物倒是可以促进血清素分泌帮助睡眠。同时还应该规律饮食和避免睡前运动。每天20分钟的运动一定会大大改善你的睡眠质量，只是别太晚就好。
Sleep debt. A weekend lie-in or afternoon snooze can do more harm than good. According to research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, "sleep debt" is best "repaid" by getting up and going to bed at your normal times rather than disrupting your body clock. Save sleep for bedtime: naps are recommended only if you are too exhausted to function.
睡眠债： 周末的大懒觉和午睡其实可能弊大于利。根据德克萨斯西南大学医学中心的研究，通过可以改变生物钟去补上一觉，还不如跟往常一样坚持到该睡的时间再睡，这样恢复的更快。把睡眠留到该睡觉的时间，当然如果你实在太困，可以小憩一下，但是别太久。
Age. Not strictly sleep hygiene, and not much you can do about it either, but it may help to know that it can get harder to sleep as you get older. Research by the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Centre and others has shown our "sleep architecture" changes as we age: older people spend less time in deeper, non-REM sleep, and their whole body clock or circadian rhythm moves forward.
年龄： 年龄严格意义上并不属于“睡眠卫生条件”范畴，毕竟我们又无法改变，但是还是有必要知道年纪越大，越难入睡这一事实。华盛顿大学药物睡眠中心的研究和其他资料表明，我们自身的“睡眠成型模式”是随着年龄的增长不断变化的。年纪越大的人越难以深层次的非快速眼动睡眠，并且生物钟和生理节律都被提前了。
"Sleep hygiene" alone, however, will not determine whether or not we sleep well. Ninety per cent of the battle is in the mind, which is why talking therapies and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are coming to be seen as perhaps the most useful solution. Espie helped launch Sleepio, a pioneering online CBT programme that has won praise from the medical press, including the Lancet and the peer-reviewed journal Sleep. In a full clinical trial, it helped 75% of people with long-term poor sleep.
“睡眠卫生条件”本身并不会完全决定我们是否会睡个好觉。90%的原因还是因为我们脑子里想的太多了，这也是为什么谈心疗法和认知行为治疗（CBT）被认为是最有效的解决方法。Espie教授发起了一个名叫Sleepio的线上CBT开创性项目，并且因此获得了包括Lancet和同行审刊Sleep等众多医学杂志的好评。在实际的临床实践中，该项目也确实帮助了75%的长期失眠患者。
So, get your head right, and you will usually sleep. But how? These are Espie's top tips:
所以，脑袋空空，酣睡入猪。下面就来看看Espie教授的这些妙招吧？
Pillow talk
枕前轻语：
1. Recognise that "sleep is not a lifestyle choice, it is a biological inevitability. It is very, very powerful, and we need to get it working for us: a person not sleeping well has first and foremost to allow sleep to do its work. Sleep is a process of letting go."
1.意识到“睡眠并不是人生的选择，而是生理的必然，她的力量如此强大，既然如此，那就让她拥抱我们吧，人活着虽然不光是为了睡觉，但是睡觉是为了活着啊，她与生俱来，就在我们身边。”
2. Sleep's achilles heel, however, "is our world. Most sleep problems are psychological obstacles that we put in sleep's way. Like all things we should do automatically, when we deliberately try to do them we screw up. Adopt a relaxed, confident approach to sleep, not a neurotic, panic-stricken one. Recognise there's a right and a wrong kind of effort. Your role model is the 'careless sleeper'."
2.影响睡眠的，老实讲“就是我们的现实生活，就是现实中的心理包袱妨碍着我们的美梦。有心栽花花不开，无心插柳柳成荫，让我们放下包袱，自然地，自信地去睡吧，我们不需要那些治疗神经病的所谓科学方法。努力的方向有对，有错，但是这就是睡觉啊，睡就对了，管它呢....”
3. Go to sleep only when you feel sleepy and, if anything, shorten the time you try to sleep: "A lot of people put good sleep beyond the achievable simply because they are so worried about not sleeping. Their sleep becomes frayed, even more broken. If I try to read a book in bed, it's never very successful because I go to bed when I'm ready to sleep. It's counter-intuitive, but a shorter sleep often means a better quality of sleep."
3.只在真的困了的时候才睡，这样才能倒床就睡：“有人太担心睡不着，以至把睡个好觉当成了是要去完成的任务。好好的睡觉就这样支离破碎。换了我，只要我真的想睡，躺在床上看书绝不是个好主意，因为我上床就是来睡觉的。可能你不信，但是稍短的睡眠才是真正酣畅的睡眠。”
4. Put the day to bed long before putting yourself to bed. "A racing mind – what happened today, what's on tomorrow, what will the future hold? – is a huge obstacle to sleep. So take time before bed: go through the day, think about tomorrow, put things in their boxes, make a list. Set your mind at rest.
4.在上床之前，让今天所有的烦心事都见鬼去吧。“老是想着今天到底怎么了？明天怎么办？未来在哪里？ 还让不让人睡觉了？ 所以在上床前，我会好好地总结今天，计划明天，记录在本子上，然后就把他们都扔到臭水沟里去吧，我的脑袋是留给睡觉的。”
5. Learn to value relaxation, and if necessary learn specific relaxation techniques. Above all, "Don't try too hard." But, of course, for some that is easier said than done.
5.学习一些放松的方法，甚至是特殊的放松疗法。总之，“别太刻意”，当然，说的总是比做的容易。
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