Contrary to popular belief,

    people who sleep six to seven hours anight live longer, and those who sleep eight hours or more dieyounger, according to the latest study everconducted on the subject. The study, which tracked the sleepinghabits of 1.1 million Americans for six years, undermines theadvice of many sleep doctors who have long recommended that peopleget eight or nine hours of sleep every night.

    与人们的普遍观念恰恰相反，就睡眠所做的最新研究发现每晚睡6-7个小时的人要比睡8个小时或更长时间的人寿命长。这项对110万美国人的睡眠习惯进行为期6年跟踪调查的研究削弱了很多睡眠医生长期以来建议人们每晚要睡8-9个小时的说法。

    "There's an old idea that people should sleep eight hours a night,which has no more scientific basis than the gold at the end of therainbow," said Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at theUniversity of California at San Diego who led the study, publishedin a recent issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. "That's anold wives' tale."

    "旧的观念认为人们每晚应睡足8小时，但其实这个观点就如同彩虹末端的金色一样毫无科学依据，"圣狄哥加州大学的精神病学教授DanielKripke说道，他领导进行的这项研究的结果发表在最近一期的《大众精神病学档案》上。"这一观点不过是老妇人的老生常谈而已。"

    The study wasnot designed to answer why sleeping longer may be deleterious orwhether people could extend their life span by sleeping less.

    这项研究目的不是试图解释为何睡得多可能是有害的，也不是解释人们能否通过减少睡眠来延长寿命。

    But Kripkesaid it was possible that people who slept longer tended to sufferfrom sleep apnea, a condition where impaired breathing puts stresson the heart and brain. He also speculated that the need for sleepwas akin to food, where getting less than people want may be betterfor them.

    但Kripke说这有可能是由于睡得多的人就容易遭受睡眠中的呼吸暂停，这是一种减弱呼吸给心脏和大脑带来压力的状况。他还认为人们对睡眠的需求就如同对食物需求一样，实际摄入量比需求量少一点可能对健康有益。

    The study quickly provoked cautions and criticism, with some sleepexperts saying that the main problem in America's sleep habits wasdeprivation, not sleeping too much.

    这项研究立刻引发了很多告诫和批评，一些睡眠专家说美国人睡眠习惯存在的主要问题是人们缺少睡眠，而不是已经睡得太多。

    "None of thissays sleep kills people," said Daniel Buysse, a University ofPittsburgh psychiatrist and the immediate past president of theAmerican Academy of Sleep Medicine. 匹兹堡大学精神病学家，即美国睡眠医学会刚刚离任的前任会长Daniel Buysse说："这决不是说睡眠导致死亡。"

    "You should sleep as much as you need to feel awake, alert andattentive the next day," Buysse added. "I'm much more concernedabout people short-changing themselves on sleep than peoplesleeping too long."

    "你的睡眠要足够使你第二天保持清醒、警觉和专注，"Buysse补充道。"我对人们减少自己睡眠时间的担心要远远超过对他们睡得太多的担心。"

    Sleeplessnessproduces a variety of health consequences that were not measured inthe study, critics said.

    批评者们说这项研究未能考虑失眠对人们健康所造成的种种后果。

    "The amount ofsleep you get impacts how alert you are, your risk for accidents,how you perform at work and school," said James Walsh, president ofthe National Sleep Foundation, a non-profit that advocates forbetter sleep habits. "There's much more to life than how long youlive."

    "睡眠时间的长短会影响你的警觉程度、出事故的可能性和你工作表现以及学习成绩，"JamesWalsh说，他是国家睡眠基金会主席，该基金会是一家致力于提倡改善睡眠习惯的非赢利性机构。"生命的意义远不只是在于它的长短。"

    The study used data from an extensive survey conducted by theAmerican Cancer Society from 1992 to 1998. Women sleeping 8, 9 and 10 hours a night had 13 percent,23 percent and 41 percent higher risk of dying, respectively, thanthose who slept 7 hours, the study found.

    Men sleeping 8, 9 and 10 hours anight had 12 percent, 17 percent and 34 percent greater risk ofdying within the study period.

    这项研究利用了美国癌症学会在1992-1998年期间开展的一次广泛调查所获得的数据，它发现每晚睡8、9和10个小时的女性与睡7小时的女性相比，死亡率分别上升了13%、23%和41%.在此研究期间，每晚睡8、9和10个小时的男性与睡7小时男性相比，死亡率则上升了12%、17%和34%.

    By contrast,sleeping five hours a night increased the risk for women by only 5percent, and for men, by 11 percent. Among people who slept justthree hours a night, women had a 33 percent increase in death, andmen had a 19 percent increase, compared with those who slept sevenhours.

    与此相比，每晚睡5个小时的女性的死亡率仅上升了5%,男性上升了11%.在每晚仅睡3个小时的人群中，与睡7个小时的人相比，女性死亡率上升33%,男性上升19%.

    Kripke, the new study's leader, pointed out that relatively fewpeople slept so little--1 in 1,000--where as almost half of allpeople slept eight hours or more.

    领导此项研究的Kripke指出：相对而言，睡这么少的人比较少--千分之一而已，而近乎有一半的人要睡8个小时甚至更多。

    The study also found that taking a sleeping pill every dayincreased the risk of death by 25 percent.

    研究还发现每天服一粒安眠药会导致死亡率上升25%.

    He recommendedthat people should not routinely take pills to get eight hours ofsleep. While acknowledging that the sleeping pills used from 1992to 1998 were not the same pills being used today, Kripke said,"without data showing that contemporary pills are safe, these dataprovide the best information about whether sleeping pills are safefor long-term use."

    他建议人们不要为了达到8小时的睡眠就经常服用安眠药。虽然Kripke承认1992-1998年期间所使用的安眠药和今天的安眠药不一样了，但是他说，"只要还没有数据表明当今的安眠药是安全的，这些数据在说明安眠药长期服用是否安全方面就仍有说服力。"

    Kripke, whose study was funded by federal tax dollars, saiddoctors' recommendations that everyone get eight hours of sleep anight may have been partly influenced by the drug companies thatmake sleeping pills. He cited a report from a public relations firmrepresenting the medicine Ambien, which gave money to the NationalSleep Foundation to alert people about an insomnia "public healthcrisis" as part of a marketing campaign.

    Kripke的研究是由联邦政府资助的，他说医生们之所以建议每人每晚睡8小时，这在一定程度上可能是受到了安眠药生产公司的影响。他引用了一家公共关系公司撰写的关于Ambien药厂的报告作为例子。该报告指出Ambien药厂资助了国家睡眠基金会来警告人们失眠问题已造成一场"公共健康危机",而这其实是Ambien药厂营销活动的一部分。

    Both Buysseand Walsh have served as paid consultants to makers of sleepingpills, but both denied being influenced by that role. Walsh saidmost researchers in the field had accepted consulting fees from thecompanies, because "99 percent of the funding to support this typeof research is from pharmaceutical companies."

    Buysse和Walsh都在担任安眠药生产厂家的顾问，而且拿薪水，但是他们两人都否认受到了这一职位的影响。Walsh说这个领域的大多数研究者都接受药厂支付的咨询费，因为"这类研究经费有99%是医药公司资助的。"

    Buysse, who wrote an editorial accompanying Kripke's article, saidmore research was needed to pin down exactly what the connectionwas between sleep and the risk of death. The study relied onpeople's own reports of their sleeping habits, which can be faulty.When people are asked how long they sleep, they usually report howlong they spend in bed, Buysse said.  Buysse为Kripke的文章配发了一篇社论，他说有必要做进一步的研究以确定睡眠和死亡率之间究竟是什么联系。他说这一研究靠的是人们对自己睡眠习惯的汇报，而这有可能会出错。当问人们睡多长时间时，他们通常汇报的是他们在床上呆的时间。

    That couldmean that people who reported sleeping eight hours were reallysleeping around seven and a half hours, which would bring them intothe study's lower risk category. Buysse also disagreed that sleepwas like food, arguing that while people can restrict sleep, theycannot "choose" to sleep longer.

    这就意味着那些汇报8小时睡眠者实际睡了7.5个小时左右，而这就会把他们列入该项研究的低危险率一类。Buysse也不同意睡眠如饮食的观点，他反驳说虽然人们可以限制自己的睡眠，他们却无法"选择"睡得更久些。

    DonaldBliwise, a psychologist at Emory University, in Atlanta, saidstudies had shown that when people were allowed to sleep howeverlong they wanted, without cues from alarm clocks and watches, theyoften slept 14 to 15 hours a day for the first few days.

    位于亚特兰大的Emory大学的心理学家DonaldBliwise说已有研究表明，当让人们随心所欲，不受闹钟和手表提示地去睡时，他们经常在最初几天中每天会睡14-15个小时。

    "Everyone,"Bliwise said, "walks around somewhat sleep deprived."

    Bliwise说："每个人在一定程度上都没有睡够。"