我们都需要睡眠，我们也很喜欢睡觉，但又好像怎么都睡不够。本期《随身英语》探讨因睡眠不足而引起的各种问题，以及我们应如何保证高质量的睡眠。

 

Every morning, my alarm goes off, I wake from my slumber¹ and hit the snooze button. Then I crawl back under the duvet to grab a few more minutes of shut-eye. "Tonight I'll go to bed early," I tell myself. But, evening comes and I get a second wind, completely forgetting about my early night.

 

Why am I finding it so difficult to get a good night's sleep? And is it a problem?

 

The amount we sleep has declined over the years and insomnia² is on the rise. Modern technology is often blamed. The light from our smartphone affects levels of melatonin – the sleep-inducing hormone³ - keeping us wide awake into the early hours.

 

Lack of sleep can badly affect our health and memory. We need deep sleep to move our memories from short-term storage into long-term storage. If we don't get enough sleep, we could lose these memories. This is especially disastrous⁴ for people studying for exams.

 

So, how can we learn to sleep better? For Professor Till Roenneberg, it's important people recognise they have an internal body clock. This determines whether you are a night owl⁵, an early bird or somewhere in the middle. We don't have any choice. "It's like feet," he said "Some people are born with big feet and some with small feet, but most people are somewhere in the middle."  Our work schedules are out of sync with our natural sleep patterns. He says this leads to "social jetlag" where people feel like they are constantly in the wrong time zone.

 

Paul Kelley – a sleep expert from the University of Oxford⁶ – says that most people are getting up too early. He believes work and school should start a few hours later. Many companies are starting to realise more sleep can mean a more productive workforce⁷ and are changing work schedules. While in South Korea, office workers are heading to relaxation⁸ parlours at lunchtime to take power naps in hammocks or massage⁹ chairs. This is much healthier than catching¹⁰ forty winks¹¹ while sitting on the toilet or dropping off at their desks.

 

So, if like me you find yourself hitting your snooze button every morning – don't feel bad. It's just our body clocks!

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