Why Does Sleeping in1 Just Make Us More Tired?

By Nick Stockton

很多人都有过这种经历：经过一周的辛苦工作，好不容易捱到周末，早早爬上床，一觉睡到第二天日照三竿，结果起床后头昏脑胀、四肢无力。科学家把这种过度睡眠后产生的如宿醉般的感觉称为“睡醉”。“睡醉”其实并不能让你的身体得到真正的休息，反而搅乱了体内的生物钟，导致睡眠絮乱。

We’ve all been there: It’s been a long week at work, so Friday night, you reward yourself by going to bed early and sleeping in. But when you wake up the next morning (or afternoon), light scathes your eyes, and your limbs feel like they’re filled with sand.2.然而，当你第二天上午（或下午）起床时，却感觉光线刺眼，四肢像灌了铅。scathe: 伤害，损害；limbs: 四肢。Your brain is still lying down and you even have faint headache. If too little sleep is a problem, then why is extra sleep a terrible solution?

Oversleeping feels so much like a hangover3. hangover: 宿醉（酒后醒来的头痛和不舒服）。that scientists call it sleep drunkenness. But, unlike the brute force neurological damage caused by alcohol, your misguided attempt to stock up on rest makes you feel sluggish by confusing the part of your brain that controls your body’s daily cycle.4. 但是，与酒精会造成严重的神经损害不同，你囤积睡眠的错误做法搅乱了大脑控制日常身体循环的部分，从而让你感觉无精打采。brute: 残忍的，强烈的；neurological: 神经性的；misguided: 被误导的，搞错的；stock up: 囤积，囤货；sluggish: 行动迟缓的，无精打采的。

Your internal rhythms are set by your circadian pacemaker, a group of cells clustered in the hypothalamus, a primitive little part of the brain that also controls hunger, thirst, and sweat.5. 你的生理节奏由体内“昼夜节律控制器”设定，即一组聚集在下丘脑的细胞群，下丘脑是人大脑中原生的一小部分区域，控制人的饥饿、口渴和流汗。rhythm: 节奏，规律； circadian pacemaker: [医]昼夜节律控制器；cell: 细胞；hypothalamus:下丘脑；primitive: [生物学]原生的。Primarily triggered by light signals from your eye, the pacemaker figures out when it’s morning and sends out chemical messages keeping the rest of the cells in your body on the same clock.6. 眼睛接收到光线信号后，“昼夜节律控制器”随之启动并感觉到现在是早上，然后发出“化学信号”，让你身体其余的细胞保持同样的节奏。trigger: 触发，引诱； figure out: 弄清楚，理解。

Scientists believe that the pacemaker evolved to tell the cells in our bodies how to regulate their energy on a daily basis.7. 科学家们认为，“昼夜节律控制器”进而指示体内细胞如何每日调节能量。When you sleep too much, you’re throwing off that biological clock, and it starts telling the cells a different story than what they’re actually experiencing, inducing a sense of fatigue.8. 如果你睡太多，你的生物钟就发生了变化，“昼夜节律控制器”便开始向细胞发出与实际不符的信号，从而引起疲乏感。throw off: 抛弃，摆脱；biological clock: 生物钟；fatigue: 疲劳。You might be crawling9. crawl: 爬行，缓慢行进。out of bed at 11a.m., but your cells started using their energy cycle at seven. This is similar to how jet lag10. jet lag: 时差反应。works.

But oversleep isn’t just going to ruin your Saturday hike.If you’re oversleeping on the regular, you could be putting yourself at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.11. 如果你经常性地睡眠过多，就有可能患上糖尿病、心脏病和肥胖症。diabetes: 糖尿病；obesity: 肥胖症。Harvard’s massive Nurses Health Study found that people who slept 9 to 11 hours a night developed memory problems and were more likely to develop heart disease than people who slept a solid eight. (Undersleepers12. undersleeper: 睡眠不足的人。are at an even bigger risk).Other studies have linked oversleep to diabetes, obesity, and even early death.

Oversleep doesn’t just happen as a misguided attempt at rewarding yourself. The Harvard Nurses Study estimated that chronic13. chronic: 慢性的，长期的。oversleep affects about 4 percent of the population.These are generally people who work odd hours, have an uncomfortable sleep situation, or a sleeping disorder.14. 这些人一般睡觉时间不规律，入睡环境不舒服，或是有睡眠障碍。

People who work early morning or overnight shifts might be oversleeping to compensate for waking up before the sun rises or going to sleep when it’s light out.15. overnight shift: 值夜班；compensate: 补偿，弥补。Doctors recommend using dark curtains and arti ficial lights to straighten things out rather than medication or supplements.16. 医生建议使用深色窗帘或人工照明去解决问题，不要吃药或吃补品。arti ficial: 人造的；straighten out: 解决问题，使重回正轨；supplement: 补品，营养补给物。Apps like the University of Michigan’s Entrain can also help people reset their circadian clock by logging the amount and type of light they get throughout the day.17. 密歇根大学的“Entrain”等手机应用通过记录一天中接收到的光线的量和类型，来帮助人们重新设定生物钟。log: 记录，记载。

When you go to bed, your body cycles between different sleep stages. Your muscles, bones, and other tissues do their repair work during deep sleep, before you enter REM.18. tissue: [生物学]组织；REM: 快速眼动睡眠，睡眠中最深的一个阶段，多数清晰的梦境在此阶段发生。

However, if your bed or bedroom is uncomfortable—too hot or cold, messy, or lumpy—your body will spend more time in light, super ficial sleep.19. 但如果你的床或房间不舒服——太热或太冷、杂乱无章或凹凸不平，你的身体处于浅睡眠的时间就比较多。lumpy: 凹凸不平的。Craving20. crave: 渴望，迫切需要。rest,you’ll sleep longer.

If everything’s just fine with your sleep zone but you still can’t get under the eight hour mark, you might need to go see a doctor. It could be a symptom of narcolepsy,which makes it hard for your body to regulate fatigue and makes you sleep in more.21. 这可能是嗜睡症的症状，让你的身体无法调节疲乏感，然后睡得更多。narcolepsy: 嗜睡症。Sleep apnea is a potentially more serious disorder where you stop breathing while you slumber.22. 睡眠呼吸暂停综合症是一种更为严重的睡眠障碍，即在睡眠中暂停呼吸。sleep apnea: 睡眠呼吸暂停综合症；slumber: 小睡，睡眠。It’s typically caused by an obstructed airway, which leads to snoring.23. obstructed: 受阻断的，受隔断的；airway: 呼吸道；snoring: 打鼾。However,in a small number of sufferers, the brain simply stops telling the muscles to breathe, starving the brain and eventually forcing a gasping response.24. 然而，对于一小部分患者而言，大脑只是停止发出让肌肉呼吸的指令，使得大脑自身缺氧，最终导致呼吸困难。starve: 使饥饿；gasping: 喘气的，倒抽气的。In addition to all the other terrifying aspects of this disease, it’s not doing your quality of sleep any favors.

No surprise, drugs and alcohol might also be causing you to sleep too much, as does being depressed (In fact,oversleep can contribute to even more depression).25. 毫不奇怪，吸毒和喝酒同样会让你睡得过多，抑郁也会（事实上，过度睡眠又会进一步加重抑郁）。But no matter what’s causing it, too much sleep is not good for your long term health. Rather than kicking the can down the road, try getting some equilibrium between your weekend and weekday sleep.26. 别再用过度睡眠这种权宜之计了，试试保持工作日与周末的睡眠平衡吧。kick the can down the road: 缓兵之计，权宜之计；equilibrium: 平衡。