32.The mysteries of slumber(717)

Passage Thirty-Two

The mysteries of slumber(sleep)

睡眠的谜团

【1】Birds do it. Bees do it. People do it, though often less than they would like to. Owls do it in the daytime. Even Caenorhabditis elegans, a primitive(original) roundworm made up of a few thousand cells, does something that looks an awful lot like it. Sleep is an ancient, universal(general) experience.

鸟类要睡觉；蜜蜂要睡觉；人类也要睡觉（尽管时常无法想睡多久就睡多久）。猫头鹰在白天睡觉。就连秀丽隐杆线虫（一种由几千个细胞组成的原始线虫），也有类似睡眠的行为。睡眠是古老且普遍的现象。

【2】But partly because it is so commonplace, for a long time sleep was a subject that scientists had not woken up to. It is only in the past half-century or so that it has attracted the attention of dedicated researchers. A new book from Kenneth Miller, a science journalist, sets out to chronicle the field’s short but fascinating(charming) history.

一定程度上，由于睡眠是一种常见现象，长久以来，科学家并未意识到研究睡眠的重要性。直到最近五十年左右的时间里，睡眠才吸引了研究者的强烈关注。科学记者肯尼斯·米勒的新书清晰阐述了睡眠研究领域简短而迷人的发展历程。

【3】 The book is organised around the life and hard work of four scientists. The patriarch of the field is Nathaniel Kleitman, whose presence looms largest. A Jewish man born in what is now Moldova, he emigrated to America in 1915, escaping(fleeing) Russian pogroms before setting up a pioneering(groundbreaking) sleep-research programme at the University of Chicago.

该书围绕4位科学家的生活和艰辛工作展开。睡眠研究领域的元老级人物，纳撒尼尔·克莱特曼，在书中占据了最大篇幅。他是一位犹太人，出生在现在的摩尔多瓦，1915年为逃离俄国对犹太人的迫害移民美国，此后在芝加哥大学建立了开创性的睡眠研究项目。

【4】The early pages of the book, before there is much in the way of established science to describe, are the weakest. A good deal of time is spent on biographical details and pen portraits of the world through which Kleitman moved.

本书开头部分实质性内容最少，后面才描述了相关的科学研究。作者用大量笔墨描写了克莱特曼的生平细节以及他生活和工作的时代背景。

【5】But the story soon picks up. It roams from the discovery of rapid(quick)-eye-movement (REM) sleep and circadian rhythms—the biological clocks that govern humanity’s days—to the effects of sleep deprivation (which can be fatal(deadly), at least in lab animals). It also probes(explores) the purpose, if any, of dreams.

但很快这本书便渐入佳境。书中内容涵盖了“快速眼动睡眠”（REM），昼夜节律，控制人类作息的生物钟，以及睡眠剥夺的影响等内容（睡眠剥夺是致命的，至少对于实验室里的动物来说是这样）。书中也探究了梦的目的（如果有的话）。

【6】 Underlying it all is a sense of psychology’s slow maturing as a science. New technologies such as electroencephalographs, which monitor electrical activity in the brain, have offered practitioners the ability to study brains directly, rather than trying to infer(conclude) what they are doing from the behaviour of their owners.

睡眠研究基于心理学逐渐成熟，成为一了门科学。监测大脑电活动的脑电图等新技术使得研究人员能够直接研究大脑，而不是根据大脑主人的行为去推断大脑的活动。

【7】 Mr Miller has a good eye for a great scientific story. One of Kleitman’s best-known experiments involved spending 32 days in a dark cave as he worked to shed light on the limits of the body’s inbuilt circadian clock. The author is happy to show research as it is really done, indignities and all.

米勒先生具备发现伟大科学话题的好眼力。克莱特曼最著名的实验之一便是在漆黑的洞穴内待了32天，以探究身体内在的昼夜钟极限。作者米勒先生在书中展示了克莱特曼真实的研究过程，包括其中的艰辛。

【8】 One section describes a more modern, quantitative sort of circadian-rhythm research that took place in a purpose-built facility in a Bavarian village. The lab sported two apartments, with no window or clocks to clue their occupants into what was happening outside.

书中有一节介绍了更加现代、更为量化的昼夜节律研究，这项研究发生在一个巴伐利亚村中，有专门建造的设施。实验室装修了两处公寓，无窗无钟，居住者无法知晓外界的情况。

【9】Test subjects lived there for weeks, free to wake and doze whenever they liked—but never free from the rectal thermometers that were attached to wall sockets by long cables.

实验对象在公寓内居住数周，想睡就睡，想醒就醒，但必须用直肠温度计测量体温（直肠温度计通过长电线连着墙上插座）。

【10】There is a serious side, too. Shift work interferes(obstructs) with the body’s internal clocks and raises the risk of illness, including heart disease and diabetes. Mr Miller explains medicine’s slow recognition of sleep apnea, a common affliction, and the damage it can inflict.

睡眠研究也有严肃的一面。轮班制会干扰体内的生物钟，增加患病风险，包括心脏病和糖尿病。米勒先生在书中谈到了医学界对睡眠呼吸暂停（一种常见病）及其伤害认识缓慢。

【11】It is caused by the airway repeatedly collapsing during sleep. Sufferers endure(bear) hundreds of episodes of oxygen deprivation every night (the characteristic gasping and snorting comes when a bodily reflex forces sleepers to take a desperate breath of air).

睡眠呼吸暂停是睡眠时呼吸道不断受挤压而引发的。患者每晚都会忍受数百次缺氧状况（由于人体本能反应迫使睡眠者极力呼吸空气，喘息和打呼便成为典型症状）

【12】 If left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to crippling(serious) exhaustion(tiredness) or worse. Mr Miller relates the case of a brother and sister who both suffered from the condition. The brother was eventually cured by having a small hole cut in his throat, but years of oxygen deprivation at night had caused irreversible brain damage in his sister.

若不加治疗，睡眠呼吸暂停会导致严重疲劳甚至更糟的情况。米勒先生讲述了一对兄妹的例子，两人都患有该病。哥哥在喉咙处切开一个小洞，治好了睡眠呼吸暂停，而妹妹则由于多年的夜间缺氧，遭受了无法逆转的脑部危害。

【13】Discoveries often lead to new questions in turn. That is why neat(orderly), tidy endings are hard to achieve in science books; this one is no different. Despite all the progress of the past 50 years, scientists are still unsure(uncertain) what sleep is for. The fact it is so widespread(general) suggests it is vital.

新发现往往引发新问题，这也就是为什么科学类书籍很难有利索、干净的结尾，本书亦不例外。尽管过去50年来取得了种种进步，科学家依旧不确定睡眠的目的。睡眠如此普遍，表明它非常重要。

【14】But why evolution would see fit to produce animals that must spend large amounts of their time insensate and unable to respond to threats is still a mystery researchers are trying to solve. For anyone curious about asking the right questions, however, Mr Miller’s book is a good place to start.

但是，为何进化会让动物必须花大量时间处于无感觉且无法对外界威胁作出回应的状态，这仍是研究者努力解决的谜团。不过，对想提出适当问题的人来说，阅读米勒的书是一个不错的开始。