Sleeping More May Help College Students in the Classroom
充足睡眠有助大学生提高学习效率
There are many reasons why college and university students often fail to get full nights of sleep.
导致大学生经常无法得到充足睡眠的原因有很多。
Many American students are away from their parents for the first time when they attend college. They might not be used to having total freedom in how they plan their days and nights.
许多美国学生到上大学才第一次离开父母，他们可能不习惯对自己的日夜作息拥有完全的自主权。
Parties, late night study meetings, or just time spent relaxing with friends - these are all things that cut into college students' sleep habits.
派对、深夜学习会见或者只是花时间和朋友放松一下，这些因素都会影响大学生睡眠习惯。
A few years ago, Michael Scullin began teaching the science of sleep to psychology students at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Scullin is an assistant professor at Baylor and the director of its Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory.
几年前，迈克尔·斯卡林开始在德州韦科市的贝勒大学教授心理学学生睡眠科学。斯卡林是贝勒大学的助理教授，也是该校睡眠神经科学和认知实验室的主任。
The class centered round the why the body needs to sleep and the physical and mental health problems caused by a lack of sleep. This includes difficulty focusing on studies or controlling one's emotions, and increased risk of many diseases.
这门课程的主题是关于：为什么身体需要睡眠，以及睡眠不足会导致哪些生理和心理上的健康问题。导致的身心问题包括学习时注意力不集中或无法控制自己的情绪，以及增加患许多疾病的风险。
When you are at your most sleep-deprived is when you are least likely to be able to judge how sleepy you are, and how much that sleepiness is impacting you, Scullin told VOA.
斯卡林对美国之音表示到：“你最缺乏睡眠之时就是在你已无法判断自己有多困以及这种睡意对你造成多大的影响时。”
He says his students seemed to enjoy the class and were interested in the material he was teaching. But when he asked them whether they were choosing to get more sleep after what they had learned, most of them said no.
斯卡林表示，他的学生似乎很喜欢这门课，对他教授的材料也很感兴趣。但当他问及学生在学习了这些知识之后，是否会选择保证充足睡眠时，大多数人都表示“不会”。
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that adults need at least seven hours of sleep a night to stay healthy. So Scullin came up with a plan to get his students to sleep more: he offered to give them extra points on their final exam, the class's most important test.
美国疾病预防控制中心指出，成年人每晚至少需要睡7小时才能保证健康。于是，斯卡林想出了一个让学生多睡觉的计划：他提出，在期末考试（科目最重要的考试）中给他们额外加外。
The plan worked better than Scullin expected. Students who slept more performed better in two different classes, and Scullin published his findings in two academic publications last November.
这个计划取得的效果比斯卡林预想的要好。获得更多睡眠的学生在两个不同的科目表现得更好。去年11月，斯卡林在两份学术刊物上发表了他的研究结果。
How did the study work?
这项研究是如何进行的?
Scullin started the experiment with his psychology students. He told them that if they agreed to sleep at least eight hours a night for the last five nights before the final exam, they would get several extra credit points. But if they agreed to take part in the study and failed to get the required amount of sleep, they would lose points on the exam. The students would wear special devices that recorded their sleep data.
斯卡林和他心理学学生开始了这个实验。他告诉学生，如果他们同意在期末考试前的最后五天，每晚至少睡8个小时，他们将得到额外的加分。但假如他们同意参加这项研究却又没有睡够8小时，他们会在考试中将得不到额外加分。学生们将佩戴记录睡眠数据的特殊设备。
Only eight out of the 18 total students in that first group agreed to take part in the experiment. Yet all the students who took part performed better on the exam than those who did not, even before the extra credit points were added. On average they earned about 5 points more on the exam.
第一组的18名学生中只有8人同意参加实验，然而，所有参加实验的学生，哪怕是在不含额外加分的情况下，都比没有参加实验的学生在考试中取得的成绩更好。他们的考试成绩平均比没有参加实验的学生高5分。
Scullin then decided to repeat the study with another group of 16 design students. He chose not to punish students who failed to sleep the full eight hours per night, and got the same results.
斯卡林于是决定和另外一组16名设计专业的学生重复这项研究。他选择不惩罚那些每晚没有睡足8小时的学生，然后得到了同样的结果。
Daniel Bessesen is a medical doctor who researches sleep, and was not involved in the study. He is also the Associate Director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado outside Denver. Bessesen notes this study does lend support to the idea that sleeping enough helps academic performance, and students who cram are likely worse off.
丹尼尔·贝瑟森是一名研究睡眠的医生，他没有参与这项研究。他还是科罗拉多大学丹佛分校之安舒茨健康中心的副主任。贝瑟森指出，这项研究确实为“充足睡眠有助于提高学习成绩，而临时抱佛脚（熬夜学习）的学生的表现会更糟”的观点提供了证据。
Cramming is a common activity for American college students. When students cram, they study most or all of the night before the exam. They get very little or no sleep because they think they will do better if the test material is fresh in their minds.
“Cramming（突击考试/临时抱佛脚）”是美国大学生很常见的一种行为。当学生们突击考试时，他们自考试前几乎熬通宵地学习。他们睡很短时间或者根本不睡觉，因为他们认为刚记住考试材料就参加考试，会考得更好。
Bessesen says there are some problems with Scullin's experiment. He says to be more scientific, the students should have been randomly chosen for sleeping or staying awake. Also, the two groups should have been studying the same subject and taking the same test. All of this may have affected the results of the study.
贝瑟森称，斯卡林的实验存在一些问题。他说，为了确保更具科学性，学生应该任意选择是睡还是不睡。另外，这两组学生应该学习相同的科目，参加相同的测试。所有这些因素都可能影响了研究的结果。
How to get people to sleep more
如何才能保持充足的睡眠？
Yet Bessesen says this experiment does fit in with a larger body of research on the importance of sleep. In fact, the amount of sleep people get has been decreasing greatly, he says. A 2015 study found the number of Americans who sleep less than six hours a night increased by about 30 million between 1985 and 2012.
贝瑟森还表示，这项实验确实适用于更广泛地进行睡眠的重要性的研究。他称，事实上，人们的睡眠时间已经大大减少。2015年的一项研究发现，从1985年到2012年，每晚睡眠不足6小时的美国人增加了约3000万人。
Scullin and Bessesen offer some ways to avoid health problems caused by a lack of sleep. Among these, they say, parents should try to get enough sleep themselves to demonstrate its importance to their children. Bessesen notes that even some medical school programs have begun to require student doctors to sleep more to prevent accidents.
斯卡林贝瑟森提供了一些避免睡眠不足引起健康问题的方法。其中，他们表示，父母应该努力获得足够的睡眠来向孩子证明睡眠的重要性。贝瑟森指出，就连一些医学院的项目也开始要求实习医生要多睡觉，以防止事故发生。
Scullin also offers a few pieces of advice to his students who have difficulty falling asleep. They include the following:
斯卡利还为那些入睡困难的学生们提供了一些建议。其中包括：
* Avoid looking at electronics before you are about to fall asleep.
睡前不要看电子产品。
* Do not drink anything with caffeine in it, such as coffee or tea, less than six hours before you go to sleep.
睡前6小时内，不要喝任何含有咖啡因的饮料，比如咖啡或茶。
* Try to go to sleep at the same time every night.
每天晚上尽量在同一时间睡觉。
* If you are lying in bed trying to sleep and cannot calm your mind, get out of bed. Take out a piece of paper and spend five to ten minutes writing down all of your thoughts.
如果你正躺在床上试图入睡，却无法让自己平静下来，那就起床别睡了。拿出一张纸，花五到十分钟时间把你所有的想法写下来。
* If you wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall back asleep, get out of bed and go into another room. Do not turn on the lights! Instead, wait there until you start to feel tired again.
如果你半夜醒来却又睡不着，就从床上起来，去另一个房间。不要开灯！而是在那里等到你又觉得困了为止。
I'm Pete Musto. And I'm Dorothy Gundy.
我是皮特·马斯托，我是多萝西·冈迪。
（小ew88中文Jewel翻译！）