睡眠不足怎么办?

When insomniacs arrive at Dr Sandi Mann's Manchester-based clinic they usually expect the sleep expert to teach them how to get eight hours of kip every night. Instead, she shows them how to cope without.

失眠患者前往桑迪·曼（Sandi Mann）医生位于曼彻斯特的诊所时通常希望这位睡眠专家能告诉他们每晚安稳入睡8小时的方法。但相反的是，桑迪医生往往会告诉他们睡眠不足时的应对方法。

"Some do walk away and find someone else, but those who stay with me generally benefit," she says. "Coping with little sleep is a valuable skill - once you learn how, you won't be so worried about getting it - and often your sleep patterns will start to stabilise."

"有些患者的确会转身就走，另寻医生，但留下来的那些人一般都会受益，"她说道。"应对睡眠不足是一项重要技能--一旦学会，就再也不用担心睡眠不足了--而且，你的睡眠模式通常也会因此逐渐稳定。"

For most people, not getting enough sleep leaves them feeling irritable, miserable and, well, tired. To make matters worse, we hear constantly how sleep deprivation is linked to ?everything from cognitive impairment and mental health issues to weight gain, increased risk of diabetes, dementia and weakened immunity.

对于大多数人而言，睡眠不足会导致烦躁、难受，和疲惫。更糟糕的是，睡眠不足通常与下列情况相关--认知障碍、心理健康问题、体重增加、患糖尿病的风险增加、痴呆和免疫力下降。

"Certainly, studies regularly reveal an increased risk of earlier death due to chronic sleep deprivation," admits Dr Mann. "A review of 16 studies found that sleeping for less than six to eight hours a night increases the risk of early death by about 12% - but as with most things, when it comes to insomnia we have created a problem to some extent.

"当然，研究经常表明：早死风险增加是由于长期睡眠不足所致，"曼医生承认道。"针对16项研究的一篇综述发现：每晚睡眠不足6至8小时会使早死的风险增加12%--但和大多数情况一样，在一定程度上，是我们自身原因导致了失眠这一问题。"

"What we are yearning for is not normal. Our natural sleep pattern is an interrupted few hours of sleep followed by a break followed by a few more interrupted hours. Yet if this is what we experience we think there is something wrong with us. There's a whole industry built around getting the perfect night's sleep but the quest for eight solid hours is not natural."

"我们的理想目标是不正常的。自然的睡眠模式是：几小时的间断睡眠-短暂休息-几小时的间断睡眠。但若果真如此，我们却会认为自己的睡眠不正常。整个行业都在为获得完美的夜间睡眠而努力，但追求8小时的酣睡却并不正常。"

Dr Mann believes people who can't sleep probably differ from those who sleep easily thanks to one important fact: they worry about sleep more. Her most important lesson for patients is that it is this worry (rather than not having Egyptian cotton sheets with a 600 thread count) results in less-good sleep, so reducing worry will improve sleep.

曼医生认为，有些人难以入睡但有些人却能轻易入睡的原因在于：难以入睡的人更担心他们的睡眠。她给患者讲过的最重要的一课就是--正是这种担心（而不是因为他们没有睡在600根奢华埃及棉四件套上）导致他们的深度睡眠变少，所以减少担心便会改善睡眠。

"Ancient people did not suffer angst about sleep because they didn't expect to get a solid block. We do, and we worry if we're not conforming to modern expectations.

"古代人不会受失眠的困扰，因为他们不会期望'酣睡'。但我们却在失眠，因为我们总在担心有没有符合当今期望。"