坐船有助于改善睡眠?

Why do babies fall asleep when they're rocked? All parents know it works, and have their own special way of moving with an irritable sleepy baby - in a sling, up and down, side to side, in the car. Recent research on rocking doesn't answer the baby question, but shines a light on the salutary effect it can have on grown-ups.

为什么摇着摇着，宝宝就睡着了？父母都知道这招管用，也有一套独特的方式摇晃焦躁困倦的宝宝--用背巾背着，上下摇晃、从一边晃到另一半，在车上。近来关于摇晃的研究并没有解决宝宝的问题，但可能对成年人带来有益影响。

Anyone who's experienced sleeping on a boat will wax lyrical about it - the special soothing sensation of being rocked to sleep by gently lapping water. There's even a company that specializes in offering floating accommodations. And novelists from Graham Greene to Paul Theroux have encapsulated the romance of the night train - boarding at bedtime, swaying in your berth with a clickety-clack lullaby, waking refreshed and ready to explore the completely different place you are now in. There is obviously something to be said for moving gently while sleeping.

任何在船上睡过觉的人都会对其热情吹捧--船儿轻轻拍打水面带来一种舒缓的入睡感。甚至有公司专门提供浮动住宿服务。格雷厄姆·格林（Graham Greene）和保罗·塞鲁克斯（Paul Theroux）等小说家们已将夜间列车的浪漫故事融入了摇摇晃晃的摇篮曲--睡前登船、躺在卧铺上摇晃，第二天醒来精神焕发，准备探索这一截然不同的所处地。显然，睡觉时的轻微晃动是有益的。

Some research was undertaken in 2011 which looked at how napping was improved by rocking to and fro, which inspired a group of scientists from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Geneva in Switzerland to carry out this new research on a full night's shut-eye.

2011年开展了一些研究：来回晃动是如何改善睡眠的？这也激发了瑞士日内瓦大学神经科学系的科学家们开展了这项新的研究：一夜安睡。

Eighteen healthy young volunteers spent two nights sleeping in the lab and playing memory games with pairs of words, while researchers tracked their brain activity with an electroencephalogram. One of the nights was spent in a traditional bed, while the second was spent gently rocking in a bed the scientists had rigged up. The special bed swayed approximately four inches each way over the period of eight seconds.

18名健康的年轻志愿者在实验室睡了2晚，然后玩字词对记忆游戏，同时研究员用脑电图跟踪他们的大脑活动。其中一个晚上，这些志愿者睡的是普通大床，而第二晚则是在科学家操纵的轻微晃动的床上度过的。这一特殊定制的床大约在8秒的时间段内向一边摇晃4英寸。

The results show that even adults benefit from being rocked while they sleep. The subjects took an average of seven minutes' less time to fall asleep in the rocking bed than they did in the steady bed, they spent more time in deep non-REM sleep, and they woke less often.

结果表明，即使是成年人也能在摇晃中睡个好觉。受试者在摇晃床上入睡的时间比在平稳床上入睡的时间平均少7分钟，他们深度非快速眼动睡眠（deep non-REM sleep）的时间更久，醒来的频次也更少。

After rocking through the night, they also had a better recall of the word pairs they had learned the night before, suggesting that better sleep improves memory.

一夜摇晃之后，他们能更好的回忆前一晚学到的字词，表明：睡眠改善可以提高记忆力。