如何“训练”自己的大脑来入睡

春眠不觉晓，然而许多现代人却饱受失眠的困扰，夜夜辗转反侧。睡眠专家指出，其实人们可以“训练”自己的大脑来入睡。

 

1. Make a schedule, and stick to it

每天在固定时间起床和上床

 

Melatonin is a hormone¹ produced by the body to regulate when you get sleepy and when you wake up. As night approaches, levels of melatonin rise, becoming a signal to the body that it's time for bed. Production of melatonin is stopped by light -- so levels naturally fall as daylight approaches, getting you ready to greet the day.

褪黑素是身体分泌的一种激素，你什么时候感到困，什么时候醒来，都靠这种激素来调节。随着黑夜降临，褪黑素的水平就会升高，暗示身体该睡觉了。光线会阻止身体分泌褪黑素，所以白天来临时褪黑素水平就会下降，让你准备好迎接新的一天。

 

To work properly, the release of this hormone needs to occur at regular times, said clinical psychologist and sleep expert Michael Grandner. So if your bedtime and wake up time change from day to day or on weekends, he said, your sleep rhythms aren't predictable and the body doesn't know how to respond.

临床心理学家、睡眠专家迈克尔·格兰德纳指出，为了让身体正常分泌褪黑素，你必须规律作息。如果你的上床和起床时间每天都不一样或者一到周末就改变，身体就无法预测你的睡眠节奏，也就不知道如何作出反应。

 

Therefore it's important to have a standard wake up time, even on weekends, vacations or after a night of poor sleep.

因此每天在固定时间起床很重要，即使是周末、假期或是前一天晚上没睡好也不应该例外。

 

2. Don't lay in bed awake

不要醒着躺在床上

 

It's a golden rule in sleep medicine, backed by "decades of data," Grandner said. In fact, he said this tip is so powerful that when used in his sleep clinic it "can even beat prescription² sleep medications."

格兰德纳说，这是有“数十年数据”支持的一条睡眠医学黄金法则。事实上，这条法则在他的睡眠诊所中“甚至比处方药还管用”。

 

"The best sleep tip you can ever give somebody is get up -- don't lay in bed awake but not sleeping," Grandner said. "Whether it's the beginning of the night or the middle of the night, if you've been awake for 20 or 30 minutes, get up and reset³. Maybe you just need five minutes to get sleepy, or maybe an hour, but don't spend that time awake in bed."

格兰德纳说：“你可以给出的最好的睡眠建议就是醒了就起床，不要醒着躺在床上。无论是刚入夜还是夜已深，如果你躺在床上二三十分钟都睡不着，就起床调整一下。也许你只需要5分钟就能感觉到困意，也许需要一小时，但是这段时间不要醒着躺在床上。”

 

Why is that so important? Because lying in bed awake can form an association in your brain that can lead to chronic⁴ insomnia⁵, Grandner explained. Instead of being a restful spot where you peacefully fall asleep, your bed becomes an anxious place where you toss and turn and wake up tired.

为什么这条法则如此重要呢？格兰德纳解释道，因为醒着躺在床上会在大脑中形成关联，从而导致长期失眠。这样一来，床就不再是你安眠的舒适窝，而成为你辗转反侧心生焦虑并在疲惫中醒来的地方。

 

Establishing that positive relationship between the bed and sleep can be beneficial on nights where your schedule has to be erratic⁷ due to work or travel, Grandner added.

格兰德纳补充道，在床和睡眠之间建立正向联系还有益于你在被工作或旅游打乱作息的夜晚入眠。

 

"Let's say you need to go to bed extra early," he said. "The bed now has the power to help overcome your racing⁸ mind and allow you to fall asleep."

他说：“比如说你需要提早上床睡觉。床将能帮助你安抚纷繁的思绪，让你酣然入睡。”

 

3. Change your attitude about sleep

改变对睡眠的心态

 

Many people view sleeping as the final thing they have to do in a jam-packed day, worth delaying to catch up on housework, schoolwork, office work or the latest binge-worthy television series.

许多人将睡眠视为忙碌的一天后要做的最后一件事，为了完成家务、作业、工作或追新剧，晚点再睡也没事。

 

That thinking needs to be changed, Grander said.

格兰德纳说，这种想法必须改变。

 

"Don't see your sleep as the amount of time you have left in your day," he advised. "See your sleep as the amount of time you need in order to set yourself up for a productive tomorrow."

他建议：“不要将睡眠时间看成你一天中剩下的时间，而是将其看成为了高效的明天而休整的时间。”

 

It may sound like a small shift in thinking, but it's an important one, Grander added.

格兰德纳补充道，或许这听起来只是想法上的一个小小改变，但却很重要。

 

Most adults need between seven and eight hours of sleep to be fully⁶ rested, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So if a person needed to rise at 7 am each day, backtiming eight hours would require a bedtime of 11 pm.

美国疾病控制与预防中心指出，大多数成人需要7到8小时睡眠时间才能得到充分休息。因此如果一个人每天要在早上7点起床，倒推8个小时睡眠时间应该是晚上11点。

 

"Now you know when you have to stop and get ready to go to bed whether you're done or not," Grander said. "The problem is we don't stop, and we don't disconnect. And that's to our detriment⁹ and it makes the next day more stressful."

格兰德纳说：“现在你知道，只要到了睡觉时间，无论你活干完了没有，你都必须停下来，准备上床睡觉。问题在于我们不愿停下来，不愿放下。这将损害我们的睡眠质量，并让接下来的一天压力更大。”

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