音频链接：喜马拉雅｜时间管理100讲

英文链接：It's not just how long you sleep but how  well you sleep that is important

Scientists agree that we should sleep between 7 to 8 hours per night. Sleeping more or less are both detrimental to our health.  The quantity of our sleep, then, is not much of a question.

据说，我们的睡眠不能超过8个小时，也尽量不要低于7个半小时，多了或少了对健康都不利。

Today, we will discuss how to improve the quality of our sleep？

那今天我们的话题就是：如何提升睡眠质量？

How can we take full advantage of these 7 to 8 hours each night?  And how do we improve our sleep quality so that we wake up refreshed and with more energy?

如何才能充分利用这7到8个小时，让我们拥有更好的睡眠质量，以便让我们拥有更好的精力？

When we sleep our bodies are not always resting at the same rate.  In fact, according to scholars, when we sleep our brains operate at different intensities or cycles. Throughout a restful night of sleep our body completes several of these cycles.

睡眠是有阶段的，按照目前公开的一些资料表明：睡眠有一些周期。

Each cycle is roughly divided into three parts:

它的周期大致分为3类：

The first category is the rapid eye movement cycle, also known as REM or REM sleep;

第一类叫：快速眼动周期，也称REM；

The second category is: light sleep, it is the feeling of light drowsiness between waking and actual sleeping;

第二类叫：浅度睡眠，它是一个过渡阶段；

The third category is: deep sleep, or what you might call sleeping soundly.

第三类叫：深度睡眠，也叫熟睡。

Have you ever felt very drowsy and confused after being forced awake?  If so, you were awaken during your deep sleep cycle.

如果你在深睡眠阶段被叫醒，你可能就会觉得昏昏欲睡。

It is during rapid eye movement or REM sleep, that we have dreams.  The brain still remains in the conscious state.  In other words your brain still thinks you are awake. You can tell someone is in REM sleep because, just like the name suggests, your eyes are moving very rapidly during this phase.  REM sleep is very important because the brain is processing information.

在快速眼动的阶段，我们往往会做梦，大脑还停留在有意识的状态，这个阶段非常重要，因为大脑在加工信息。

Shallow sleep is the transition phase between REM sleep and deep sleep.

浅度睡眠是快速眼动阶段过渡到深度睡眠的“过渡阶段”。

In deep sleep, our blood pressure, breath rate, and pulse (that is how fast your heart beats) are reduced to a minimum, and the body achieves a state of complete relaxation.

深度睡眠时，我们的血压、呼吸、心率都降到最低，身体达到完全的放松。

So, deep sleep is the most important sleep stage.

所以，深度睡眠是我们最重要的睡眠阶段。

To be in good health, we must first ensure we achieve adequate deep sleep each night.

要想身体健康，我们首先要满足的就是这个睡眠阶段。

During the deep sleep stage, the body's immune system will fight disease.

在深度睡眠阶段，人体的免疫系统会与疾病做斗争。

If we don’t get enough deep sleep, we may feel drowsyand nauseous, or experience headaches or muscle soreness...

如果缺乏深度睡眠，我们就会出现极度的瞌睡、恶心、头疼，肌肉酸痛......

So, how can we enter the deep sleep stage? And once we are in deep sleep, how can we stay in deep sleep for a sufficient length of time?

那么，我们如何才能进入深度睡眠阶段呢？并且在这个阶段停留足够多的时间呢？

On a typical night a healthy adult will complete 2-3 cycles of deep sleep. The first cycle of deep sleep is typically the longest.

一个晚上，我们大多会有2-3次进入深度睡眠阶段，而进入的第一个深度睡眠的时间往往是最长的。

This is true for each of the phases of sleep.  Each night, a healthy adult we will go through cycles of REM sleep followed by shallow sleep followed by deep sleep and then back to REM sleep.  We should experience 2-3 cycles of this sleep pattern each night.  The first cycle results in the deepest deep sleep phase.  The second cycle is a little lighter.  And the last cycle is the lightest of the deep sleep phases.

一个晚上，我们会经历2-3次从“REM-浅度睡眠-深度睡眠”的过程，在第一个深度睡眠过后，我们进入第二轮，那么第二个深度睡眠的时间就比第一个时间短了，第三个就更短。

In general, we will have 2-3 deep sleep phases and 3-4 REM stages each night, and the middle is the transitional shallow sleep stage.

总的来讲，一个晚上我们大致会有2-3个深度睡眠，会有3-4个REM快速眼动阶段，中间的就是过渡的浅度睡眠。

Therefore, if you want to improve the quality of your sleep, which phase do you think is most important?  You’re right, we must improve our deep sleep first.

所以，想要提高深度睡眠的质量，第一个深度睡眠就显得非常重要了。

If you can stretch out the amount of time you stay in your first deep sleep phase, then each subsequent deep sleep phase will be proportionally longer.

如果能够把第一个深度睡眠的时间拉长，那你整个深度睡眠的时长就会相对来讲变得更长了。

You may be wondering: what is so important about deep sleep?  What puts us in this state of extreme relaxation?

那么深度睡眠跟什么有关呢？

I will tell you.

深度睡眠跟我们的体温有关。

Deep sleep is related to our body temperature.

我们的精神状态受体温节律的控制。

Our mental state is controlled by fluctuations in our internal body temperature.

在前面几讲中我们提到：要想管理好自己的精力，就要管理好自己的节律。

In our previous lessons, we discussed that to manage our own energy, we must manage our own rhythm or cycles.

一天当中，我们的体温是从低到高，然后又从高到低的。

Every day, our body temperature fluctuates from low to high, and then from high to low.

早上6：00左右人的体温最低，然后体温缓慢升高，我们就醒来。

Our body temperature is lowest at about 6:00 in the morning, and then it slowly increases, as we wake up;

到了中午，人的体温达到一个峰值，然后就开始回落，这时候我们会有点困意。

At noon, the body temperature reaches its peak, and then it begins to fall, and during this time we will be a little sleepy.  Have you ever needed a 3:00PM coffee or sugar break?  This is why。

然后，体温又开始缓慢上升，到了晚上10：00达到体温的又一个高峰，这时它又开始下降，直到第二天的早晨6：00，它完成一个周期。

Then, your body temperature begins to rise againslowly, and reaches another peak 10:00 in the evening. And then it begins to drop again, and reaches its lowest point at 6:00 in the morning – thus completing the daily cycle.

体温上升的时候我们会感觉很清醒，体温下降的时候我们会感觉很疲惫。

When the body temperature rises, we will feel energetic and awake, but when the temperature drops, we will feel very tired.

那么什么能影响到我们的体温呢？

We know that our body temperature fluctuates in cycles, but what can affect our body temperature?

体温阶段性的变化，什么能够影响我们的体温呢？

Melatonin.  Melatonin affects body temperature.

褪黑素能够调节体温。

Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the body when it is dark which is usually when you sleep. When you sleep and it is dark, your body produces more and more melatonin which reduces our body temperature and thus we enter deeper levels of sleep.

褪黑素是一种人体在黑暗中会分泌的激素，它可以降低体温，使我们进入更深的睡眠。

Now you may be wondering, what affects the secretion of melatonin?

那又是什么能影响到褪黑素的分泌呢？

There are many factors actually, but there are two that have the greatest impact:

有很多，但最直接的因素有两个：

The first is the sunlight: we have mentioned the movement of the sympathetic nerves in the previous lectures.

第一个是阳光：我们在前面几讲中有提到过交感神经的运作。

Sunlight restrains the secretion of sleep-inducing melatonin, raises our body temperature, and makes youmore alert.  This is why you can wake up more quickly if you open the curtain and bask in the sunlight when you get up in the morning.

阳光会抑制褪黑素的分泌，它会让我们的体温升高，让人更清醒，所以早上起床拉开窗帘，晒晒太阳你就能快速清醒。

The second factor that controls melatonin secretion is movement: movement causes our body to release more energy and it restrains the release of melatonin.

第二个是运动：运动使身体的精力更多被释放，人容易在疲惫中入睡。

Some of us take a short nap in the middle of the day such as around 12 noon.  This noon nap should not be more than 45 minutes.  If it is, the human body will begin to enter deep sleep, which will interrupt your rhythm.

在这里需要提醒大家，有条件的伙伴中午一定要午休片刻。午休不要超过45分钟，如果超过了，人体就会进入深度睡眠，这样就会破坏你的节律。

If you actually want to take a nap during the day, you’ll need to enter deep sleep very quickly.  To that I suggest putting on a sleep mask and ear plugs in order to isolate your senses from the sun and sound which will help your body secrete melatonin.

如果午休时想更快进入睡眠状态，那么我们最好就是戴上眼罩和耳塞，隔绝阳光和声音。

In addition, do not stay in bed after the end of a night sleep cycle, and do not sleep late on weekends.  Make sure you get up on time on the workdays.

除此之外，一晚上的睡眠周期结束以后不要赖床，周末也不要睡懒觉，保持和工作日一样的时间按时起床。

Try not to drink alcohol or use sleeping pills to help you sleep.  They can disrupt your sleep cycle and in some cases become fatal if used improperly.

尽量不要用酒精和安眠药使自己入睡，它们是致命的。

A night of good sleep also requires us to drink enoughwater.  We should drink at least 8 cups of boiled watereach day;

保证有好的睡眠也要求我们要摄入充分的水分，8杯白开水是有必要的；

Do not overeat. Try not to eat food that is hard to digest. Do not eat late at night and especially do not eat before bedtime...

不要暴饮暴食，尽量不吃难消化的食物，不要太晚吃东西，也不要在睡前吃太多东西......

Students of Easy Efficiency time management tend to collect their tasks into Omnifocus before sleeping to clear the brain of these concerns and allow the brain to fall in a relaxed sleeping state, reduce the length of active REM sleep, and increase the length of deep sleep.

易效能时间管理的学员伙伴还可以利用收集的技巧，用OmniFocus这个软件，把大脑里的事物清空，让大脑在轻松的状态下入睡，减少REM的时长，增加深度睡眠的时间。

So in closing, remember, our ability to manage time effectively comes from working efficiently and that requires energy.  To ensure we have enough energy each day we must ensure we have enough quality sleep each night.  Our sleep should last 7-8 hours each night and the quality of sleep comes from our ability to expand our deep sleep cycles.

我们所谈到的高效能，来自于高效工作和精力管理。每天足够的高质量的睡眠才能保证我们工作高效。每天需要7-8小时的睡眠，且尽量延长深度睡眠的时间。

Now you understand the science of sleep.  In our next lesson I will share with you specific tools you can use and habits you can develop to improve the quality of your sleep.

当你了解了科学的睡眠之后，下一节课我会分享如何提升睡眠质量的工具。