徐州最好的海鲜自助:为什么精英都是夜猫子？

为什么有些人睡得少干得多？

Melinda Beck explains why for a small number of people getting a full night of sleep is a waste of time and the reasons behind it.

对于少数一些人来说，长夜漫漫皆睡眠就是浪费时间，梅琳达·贝克（Melinda Veck）对此作出了解释，并披露了背后的原因。

For a small group of people—perhaps just 1% to 3% of the population—sleep is a waste of time.

对于一小撮人（比例也许是总人口的1%到3%）来说，睡觉纯属浪费时间。

Natural "short sleepers," as they're officially known, are night owls and early birds simultaneously. They typically turn in well after midnight, then get up just a few hours later and barrel through the day without needing to take naps or load up on caffeine.

他们的正式名称叫做“短睡者”，天生的“短睡者”既是夜猫子又是早起鸟。他们通常午夜过后才上床睡觉，几个钟头之后就起床干活，整整一天都不需要小憩一下或充杯咖啡。

They are also energetic, outgoing, optimistic and ambitious, according to the few researchers who have studied them. The pattern sometimes starts in childhood and often runs in families.

按照一些研究人员的说法，他们还精力充沛、性格开朗且乐观进取。有时候在他们儿时就显露出这种模式，并通常会在家庭中呈现类似情况。

While it's unclear if all short sleepers are high achievers, they do have more time in the day to do things, and keep finding more interesting things to do than sleep, often doing several things at once.

尽管是否所有的短睡者皆为成功人士尚不得而知，但是在工作日里面他们的确有更多的时间去做事，并总会去寻找比睡觉更有趣的东西，他们常常会同时去做几件事情。

Nobody knows how many natural short sleepers are out there. "There aren't nearly as many as there are people who think they're short sleepers," says Daniel J. Buysse, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional group.

没人知道天生短睡者的数量有多少。“这个数量几乎跟自认为是短睡者的数量一样多”，丹尼尔·J·拜瑟（Daniel J.Buysse）说。拜瑟是匹兹堡大学医疗中心的一名精神病学家，曾任一个专业团体美国睡眠医学会的主席。

Out of every 100 people who believe they only need five or six hours of sleep a night, only about five people really do, Dr. Buysse says. The rest end up chronically sleep deprived, part of the one-third of U.S. adults who get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, according to a report last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

每100名自认为每晚只需睡5或6个小时的人里面只有5个人的确如此，拜瑟博士说。根据疾病控制与预防中心上个月的一份报告，其余的最后都是习惯性失眠，是美国睡眠少于建议的每晚7小时的三分之一人群的一部分。

To date, only a handful of small studies have looked at short sleepers—in part because they're hard to find. They rarely go to sleep clinics and don't think they have a disorder.

迄今为止，只有少量小规模的研究是面向短睡者的——部分是由于他们难以捕捉。他们很少去睡眠诊所，也不认为自己睡眠失调。

A few studies have suggested that some short sleepers may have hypomania, a mild form of mania with racing thoughts and few inhibitions. "These people talk fast. They never stop. They're always on the up side of life," says Dr. Buysse. He was one of the authors of a 2001 study that had 12 confirmed short sleepers and 12 control subjects keep diaries and complete numerous questionnaires about their work, sleep and living habits.One survey dubbed "Attitude for Life" that was actually a test for hypomania. The natural short sleepers scored twice as high as the controls.

一些研究指出，部分短睡者也许具有轻度躁狂，一种带有思维跳跃和部分抑郁症状的温和形式的狂躁症。“这些人讲话很快。从不停歇。总是乐观向上”，拜瑟博士说。他是2001年的一项研究的作者之一，该项研究有12位确定的短睡者及12位对照受试者，让他们坚持写日记，并就其工作、生活和习惯完成若干份问卷调查。其中一份名为“生活态度”的调查实际上是一份轻度躁狂的测试问卷。天生短睡者的得分比对照组高出了一倍。

There is currently no way people can teach themselves to be short sleepers. Still, scientists hope that by studying short sleepers, they can better understand how the body regulates sleep and why sleep needs vary so much in humans.

目前人们还没有办法通过自我学习成为短睡者。尽管如此，通过研究短睡者，科学家希望能更好地理解人体是如何调节睡眠的，以及为何不同的人对睡眠的需求会如此不同。

"My long-term goal is to someday learn enough so we can manipulate the sleep pathways without damaging our health," says human geneticist Ying-Hui Fu at the University of California-San Francisco. "Everybody can use more waking hours, even if you just watch movies."

“我的长期目标是，有朝一日能掌握足够的知识，从而在不损害健康的前提下操纵睡眠的神经通路”，傅颖慧（Ying-Hui Fu）说。傅是旧金山加利福尼亚大学的人类遗传学家。“人人都可以利用更多的清醒时间，哪怕只是看看电影”。

Dr. Fu was part of a research team that discovered a gene variation, hDEC2, in a pair of short sleepers in 2009. They were studying extreme early birds when they noticed that two of their subjects, a mother and daughter, got up naturally about 4 a.m. but also went to bed past midnight.

2009年，一个研究小组在一对短睡者身上发现了hDEC2基因变异，傅博士是该小组的成员之一。他们在研究起得特别早的人时发现，被试者中的两位，一位是母亲，另一个是女儿，都是睡到凌晨4点就自然醒，但却都是午夜过后才入睡的。

Genetic analyses spotted one gene variation common to them both. The scientists were able to replicate the gene variation in a strain of mice and found that the mice needed less sleep than usual, too.

遗传分析发现，她们有一种共同的基因变异。科学家能够在一种老鼠的身上复制这一基因变异，结果发现，这种老鼠需要的睡眠时间也比平常少了。

News of their finding spurred other people to write the team, saying they were natural short sleepers and volunteering to be studied. The researchers are recruiting more candidates and hope to find more gene variations they have in common.

他们发现的消息激发了其他人写信给这一小组，声称自己是天生短睡者并志愿给他们当小白鼠。研究人员正在招募更多的候选对象并希望从中发现更多的共同基因变异。

Potential candidates for the gene study are sent multiple questionnaires and undergo a long structured phone interview. Those who make the initial screening wear monitors to track their sleep patterns at home. Christopher Jones, a University of Utah neurologist and sleep scientist who oversees the recruiting, says there is one question that is more revealing than anything else: When people do have a chance to sleep longer, on weekends or vacation, do they still sleep only five or six hours a night? People who sleep more when they can are not true short sleepers, he says.

他们向基因研究潜在的候选对象发放了多份调查问卷，并进行了一段很长的有组织的电话采访。随后他们给通过初步甄选的人佩戴上监视器以便跟踪其在家中的睡眠模式。负责招募工作的克里斯托弗·琼斯（Christopher Jones）是犹他大学的一位神经学家和睡眠科学家，他说有一个问题更能说明问题：那就是，当他们有机会睡得更久的时候，比如说周末或假期时间，他们是否仍每晚只睡5个小时？那些在有可能的时候睡得更多的人并非真正的短睡者。他说。

To date, Dr. Jones says he has identified only about 20 true short sleepers, and he says they share some fascinating characteristics. Not only are their circadian rhythms different from most people, so are their moods (very upbeat) and their metabolism (they're thinner than average, even though sleep deprivation usually raises the risk of obesity). They also seem to have a high tolerance for physical pain and psychological setbacks.

琼斯博士说，到目前为止，他已经确定了20位真正的短睡者，他还说这些人具有某些有趣的共同特征。他们不仅生理节律与大多数人相异，其情绪（非常乐观）和代谢（比平均水平更瘦，即便睡眠失调通常会导致肥胖风险）也与众不同。对于生理疼痛和心理挫折，他们似乎还具备很高的耐受性。

"They encounter obstacles, they just pick themselves up and try again," Dr. Jones says.

“他们在遭受挫折的时候会愈挫愈勇”，琼斯博士说。

Some short sleepers say their sleep patterns go back to childhood and some see the same patterns starting in their own kids, such as giving up naps by age 2. As adults, they gravitate to different fields, but whatever they do, they do full bore, Dr. Jones says.

某些短睡者说自己的睡眠模式回到了童年时代，有些则说相同的模式在自己还是孩子的时候就开始了，比如两岁的时候就放弃午睡。作为成年人，他们遍布不同的领域，但是不管做什么，他们都是全力以赴，琼斯博士说。

"Typically, at the end of a long, structured phone interview, they will admit that they've been texting and surfing the Internet and doing the crossword puzzle at the same time, all on less than six hours of sleep," says Dr. Jones. "There is some sort of psychological and physiological energy to them that we don't understand."

“一般而言，在冗长的有组织电话采访结束之时，他们都会承认自己还在一边写短信、一边上网冲浪，同时还在做字谜游戏，这一切都是在睡眠时间不足6小时的情况下进行的”，琼斯博士说：“他们身上一定具备某种不为人所知的生理和心理能量”。

Drs. Jones and Fu stress that there is no genetic test for short sleeping. Ultimately, they expect to find that many different genes play a role, which may in turn reveal more about the complex systems that regulate sleep in humans.

琼斯博士还有傅博士强调，没有对短睡进行基因测试。他们期望最终能找到许多不同的基因发挥的作用，也许从中能揭示出更多有关这一复杂系统调节人类睡眠的秘密。

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Leonardo da Vinci were too busy to sleep much, according to historical accounts. Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison came close but they were also fond of taking naps, which may disqualify them as true short sleepers.

根据史书记载，本杰明·富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）、托马斯·杰弗逊（Thomas Jeffson）及达芬奇是因为太忙而无法睡太久。温斯顿·丘吉尔和托马斯·爱迪生比较接近，但是他们也喜欢午睡，这也许会剥夺其成为真正短睡者的资格。

Nowadays, some short sleepers gravitate to fields like blogging, videogame design and social media, where their sleep habits come in handy. "If I could find a way to do it, I'd never sleep," says Dave Hatter, a software developer in Fort Wright, Ky. He typically sleeps just four to five hours a night, up from two to three hours a few years ago.

现在，一些短睡者被吸引到诸如博客、视频游戏设计以及社交网络之类的领域，这正是他们的睡眠习惯发挥作用的地方。“如果我能找到不睡觉的办法的话我永远也不睡”，戴夫·哈特（Dave Hatter）是这样说的。哈特是肯塔基州莱特堡的一名软件开发人员。他每晚一般只睡5个小时，这已经比几年前的两到三个小时要高了。

"It's crazy, but it works for me," says Eleanor Hoffman, an overnight administrator at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York who would rather spend afternoons playing mahjong with friends than sleep anymore than four hours. Sometimes she calls her cousin, Linda Cohen, in Pittsburgh about 4 a.m., since she knows she'll be wide awake as well—just like they were as kids.

“这很疯狂，但对我有效”，埃莉诺·霍夫曼（Eleanor Hoffman）说。埃莉诺是纽约贝尔维尤医疗中心的一位值夜管理人员，下午的时候，她宁愿跟朋友打麻将也不肯多睡上一会（超过4小时）。有时候她在凌晨4点钟会给匹兹堡的堂妹琳达·科恩（Linda Cohen）打电话，因为她知道，她也一样清醒得很——就像她们儿时一样。

"I come to life about 11 at night," says Mrs. Cohen, who owns a chain of toy stores with her husband and gets up early in the morning with ease. "If I went to bed earlier, I'd feel like half my life was missing."

科恩女士跟丈夫拥有一家玩具连锁店，她轻而易举就能早早起床。“我是大概晚上11点左右出生的”，科恩女士说：“如果上床太早，我就会觉得半个人生不见了”。

Are you a short sleeper? For more information on the genetic study, contact Dr. Jones at chris.jones@hsc.utah.edu

你是短睡者吗？若想了解更多有关基因研究的信息，请联络琼斯博士，其邮箱是chris.jones@hsc.utah.edu

Write to Melinda Beck at HealthJournal@wsj.com