新概念雙語：五個妙招教你練成辦公室午睡達(dá)人

In many corners of our productivity-obsessed society, naps are associated with laziness. Everyone should sleep eight hours at night,the thinking goes, and work all through the day.But that's backward. Most people routinely woke up for several hours in the middle of the night, and supplemented their "segmented" sleep with a nap in the afternoon.In other words, napping is natural. A short nap can also produce all sorts of benefits。

在我們這個崇尚效率的社會，午睡在多數(shù)情況下和懶惰聯(lián)系在一起。普遍認(rèn)為，每個人都應(yīng)晚上睡八小時，然后工作一整天。然而，這種想法已經(jīng)過時。多數(shù)人夜晚通常會照例醒過來幾小時，然后下午的時候小睡一會，補(bǔ)充他們“支離破碎”的睡眠。換言之，午睡再自然不過，小睡也益處頗多。

1) Nap in the afternoon。

下午小睡一會。

Some researchers even think the afternoon urge to nap is evolutionary:It seems nature definitely intended that adults should nap in the middle of the day, perhaps to get out of the midday sun.Regardless of the biological reason, this afternoon lull is the perfect time to take a quick nap。

研究人員甚至認(rèn)為力促下午小睡具有革新意義：成年人就該中午小憩，這似乎是天性所致，也許就為了躲避日中的太陽吧。除卻生理原因，下午的間歇時間小睡一下再合適不過。

2) Find a dark, comfortable, quiet place。

個光線暗、 安靜舒適的地方。

You may feel tired enough to fall asleep anywhere, but sleep researchers find that these controllable factors play a huge role in how easily and quickly people can fall asleep。

也許你累到哪里都能入睡，但睡眠研究人員發(fā)覺這些可控因素很大程度決定你是否可以輕松快速入睡。

3) Figure out how long to nap。

計算下要午睡多久。

Because your brain progresses through a series of distinct stages after you fall asleep, naps of different lengths can have surprisingly different effects。

因?yàn)槟愕拇竽X在你入睡后逐步進(jìn)入一系列不同的階段，午睡時長不等，效果也驚人的不同。

4) Set an alarm。

定好鬧鐘。

This might seem obvious, but for most people it's really hard to wake up when you intend to, and longer naps can backfire。

這看似顯而易見，但多數(shù)人打算起來時往往醒不來，午睡時間過長往往事與愿違。

5) Optional: Drink some coffee first。

可選擇先喝點(diǎn)咖啡。

Quickly downing a cup of coffee and then napping for 20 minutes or less can have some surprising benefits。

飛速灌下一杯咖啡，然后小睡約摸20分鐘會有令人驚喜的效果。

The reason is that it takes around 20 minutes for caffeine to move through your gastrointestinal tract and your bloodstream, to enter your brain. What's more, caffeine makes you feel more energetic by displacing a chemical called adenosine, which produces a feeling of tiredness — and sleep naturally clears adenosine from your brain.That means when you wake up after 20 minutes and the caffeine arrives, it has less adenosine to compete with, amplifying the effect of the caffeine。

原因在于，咖啡因要花大約20分鐘才能進(jìn)入腸胃道和血液，再進(jìn)入大腦。此外，咖啡因會替換掉一種叫腺甘酸的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，這種物質(zhì)還會產(chǎn)生疲勞的感覺，從而讓你活力更充沛。而睡覺可以徹底讓腺甘酸從你大腦里清除。這意味著20分鐘后你一覺醒來，咖啡因起效，沒有太多腺甘酸相抵觸，增強(qiáng)了咖啡因的效果。