1 Million People Agree – Sleeping for 5 Hours is Better Than 8

一百万人都同意：睡五小时好过睡八小时

You’ve heard it before: “Everyone needs 8 hours sleep per night.”

之前你一定听过这句话：“每个人每晚都需要8小时的睡眠。”

Well, a study out of UCSD paints a different story. The 2010 paper instead suggests that the secret to a long life lies in getting just enough sleep, which ends up being about 6.5 hours per night.

但是，加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究在这个问题上给了我们一个完全不同的答案。这份2010年的论文反而认为，长寿的秘密就在于拥有刚刚足够的睡眠时间，也就是每晚6.5小时。

The study looks at 1.1 million people’s sleep patterns over the course of 6 years, tracking the amount of sleep each subject averaged alongside their longevity. Its major finding: Sleeping as little as 5 hours per night can be better for you than sleeping 8.

这次研究调查了110万人六年中的睡眠模式，追踪每个受试者的平均睡眠时间和寿命情况。 研究的主要发现是：每晚睡5个小时比睡8个小时更好。

How much sleep do you really need?

你究竟需要多少睡眠？

The study, run by Dr. Daniel F. Kripke an MD and Professor of Psychiatry specializing in sleep research and aging, didn’t find any statistical health-related reason to sleep longer than 6.5 hours per night.

该研究由Daniel F. Kripke博士和专业从事睡眠研究和衰老的精神病学教授负责，研究没有发现每晚睡眠时间超过6.5小时的任何统计学上的与健康相关的原因。

Data that he used from the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPSII) from the American Cancer Society even shows that sleeping about 5 hours per night is slightly safer than sleeping 8. In this case, we’ll go ahead and define “safer” as “not dying.”

他从美国癌症协会的癌症预防研究II（CPSII）中使用的数据甚至表明，每晚睡眠约5小时比睡8个小时略微更安全。在这种情况下，我们将“更安全”定义为“没死”。

The data is impressive. It covers 1.1 million participants, and it is the first large-scale population study that correlates sleep with longevity while taking into account things like age, diet, exercise, health problems and smoking.

这项数据令人印象深刻。 它覆盖了110万参与者，这是第一次将睡眠与长寿联系起来的大规模人口研究，同时考虑到年龄、饮食、运动、健康问题和吸烟等问题。

The data is from 1982-1988 because it took years to input the data and perform analysis on it.

数据来自1982年至1988年，因为输入数据并对其进行分析需要数年时间。

I’m not sure where the sleep-8-hours-per-night myth came from, but it’s totally wrong. You can file it away under old information, along with the eat-fewer-calories-to-lose-weight myth.

我不确定8小时睡眠时间的神话来自哪里，但这是完全错误的。你可以把这个旧信息归档，这种旧信息还包括摄入更少卡路里来减肥的神话。

With all the biohacking I’ve done over the years, I’m able to thrive on about 2.5 hours of sleep per night and be fully functional the next day without needing to “catch up” on sleep. That said, the data from this study has me convinced that 5 hours per night is better for longevity and long-term performance.

鉴于多年来我一直在做的所有生物黑客（译者注：生物黑客的目标是把生物技术带出实验室，打破常规实验室的限制，在不同环境下创新发展生物技术）活动，我能够在每晚大约2.5小时的睡眠中茁壮成长，并且第二天身体还能正常运转，而不需要“赶上”睡眠。 也就是说，这项研究的数据使我确信每晚睡5小时对于长寿和长期表现而言更好。

I’m certain that I can put my body in more restorative sleep stages using technology, and that it’s probably safe to do it for longer periods, but I’d like some more data on that before I do it all the time!

我确信我可以使用技术将我的身体置于更加恢复性的睡眠阶段，并且这一技术可以安全地长时间地使用，但在我一直这样做之前，我想要更多的数据！

Understanding your sleeping habits

了解你的睡眠习惯

Just about everyone including doctors, health experts, and athletes agree, sleep is critical. Here are just a few studies that prove just that:

几乎每个人，包括医生、健康专家、运动员都同意，睡眠是至关重要的。以下只是证明这一点的一些研究：

The mental benefits

精神上的好处

One night of good sleep can improve your ability to learn new motor skills by 20%.

一晚良好的睡眠可以让你学习新运动技能的能力提高20％。

Quality sleep increases your ability to gain new insight into complex problems by 50%.

优质睡眠可以让你对复杂问题获得新见解的能力提高50%。

The physical benefits

身体上的好处

Good sleep promotes skin health and a youthful appearance.

良好的睡眠促进皮肤更加健康，外貌更加年轻。

Sleep increases testosterone levels.

睡眠会增加睾丸激素水平。

Sleep controls optimal insulin secretion.

睡眠会将胰岛素分泌控制在最佳水平。

Sleep encourages healthy cell division (helps prevent cancer).

睡眠可以促进健康的细胞分裂（有助于预防癌症）。

Sleep increases athletic performance.

睡得好可以让你在运动中表现得更好。

So if sleep is so awesome, why get less of it? The short answer is: it’s the quality of your sleep that matters, not the quantity. Poor quality sleep can make you fat, weak, and stupid.

所以，如果睡眠这么好，那么我们为什么还要睡少点？简单来说，答案就是：睡眠质量比起睡眠时长来说更要紧。糟糕的睡眠质量会让你肥胖、虚弱，还会变蠢。

If you find that you need a ton of sleep, your body is telling you that there’s something wrong. Stress, over-exercising, and bad nutrition habits are all common reasons your body might want more of your hours to sleep at night. That’s where biohacking comes to the rescue.

如果你发现你需要大量睡眠，你的身体会告诉你有什么不对劲。压力、过度锻炼和不良的营养习惯都是你的身体可能需要更多时间在晚上睡觉的常见原因。这就是生物黑客来救援的地方。

（来源：沪江英语）