TED | 孩子需要这么早上学吗？

演讲简介

学生时代的你，会不会特别讨厌早起，却又不得不爬起来上学？本期TED演讲者 Wendy Troxel 就根据她的专业知识告诉我们，睡眠不足其实会对正在发育期的孩子产生方方面面的负面影响。一起来看看她怎么说吧。

 

 

 

 

演讲精彩片段（节选）欣赏

 

Every morning I ask myself, "How can I - knowing what I know and doing what I do for a living - be doing this to myown son?" You see, I'm a sleep researcher. 

每天早晨我问自己：「明明我知道各种睡眠的知识，而且我赖以为生的工作就是与睡眠有关，但是我怎么能这样对待自己的儿子？」你明白了吧，我是一位睡眠的研究者。

 

So I know far too much about sleep and theconsequences of sleep loss. I know that I'm depriving my son of the sleep hedesperately needs as a rapidly growing teenager. I also know that by waking himup hours before his natural biological clock tells him he's ready, I'mliterally robbing him of his dreams - the type of sleep most associated withlearning, memory consolidation and emotional processing.

所以我很清楚睡眠的重要性，以及睡眠不足所导致的后果。我知道我正在剥夺我儿子所需要的睡眠，那对于正处于快速成长阶段的青少年来说，是非常需要的。我也知道，我在他生理时钟的自然醒数小时前将我儿子叫醒，我正在剥夺了他的美梦── 而这种睡眠型态与学习、记忆固化和情感处理是息息相关的。

 

But it's not just my kid that's beingdeprived of sleep. Sleep deprivation among American teenagers is an epidemic.Only about one in 10 gets the eight to 10 hours of sleep per night recommendedby sleep scientists and pediatricians. Now, if you're thinking to yourself,"Phew, we're doing good, my kid's getting eight hours," remember,eight hours is the minimum recommendation. You're barely passing. Eight hours iskind of like getting a C on your report card.

但是，不只是我的孩子被剥夺了睡眠。在美国的青少年之中，睡眠不足是普遍流行的现象。只有约 1/10 的青少年，每天晚上的睡眠时间能够达到睡眠科学家和小儿科医生所建议的8至 10 个小时，现在，如果你回想自己的情况，「唷，我们家还不错， 我的孩子有睡到 8个小时。」要记得，八个小时是建议的最低标准。 只是刚好及格而已。「每晚睡八个小时」就像是在成绩单上得到 C 而已。

 

There are many factors contributing to thisepidemic, but a major factor preventing teens from getting the sleep they needis actually a matter of public policy. Not hormones, social lives or Snapchat.Across the country, many schools are starting around 7:30am or earlier, despitethe fact that major medical organizations recommend that middle and high schoolstart no earlier than 8:30am. These early start policies have a direct effecton how much - or really how little sleep American teenagers are getting.

有许多原因使得睡眠不足的情况普遍蔓延，但是让青少年得不到需要的睡眠，实际上的主因是公共政策。而不是因为孩子们的荷尔蒙、社交生活，或是照片分享软件 Snapchat 所造成的。在全国各地， 许多学校都规定早上七点半左右到校，有的甚至更早；尽管各大医疗机构都提出建议，初高中不应该在早上八点半之前上课。 过早到校上课的规定， 直接影响到美国的青少年， 让他们的睡眠时间愈来愈少。

 

They're also pitting teenagers and theirparents in a fundamentally unwinnable fight against their own bodies. Aroundthe time of puberty, teenagers experience a delay in their biological clock,which determines when we feel most awake and when we feel most sleepy. This isdriven in part by a shift in the release of the hormone melatonin. Teenagers'bodies wait to start releasing melatonin until around 11pm, which is two hourslater than what we see in adults or younger children. 

这些规定也使得青少年和他们的父母，一直在这场赢不了的战争当中，与自己的身体健康对抗。在青春期的时候，青少年的生理时钟会被推迟，而这决定了我们何时感觉到清醒以及何时感觉到疲倦。而这是由于释放褪黑激素的时间差所造成的。青少年的体内会等到晚上11 点左右才开始释放褪黑激素，这比我们一般大人或小孩晚了 2 个小时。

 

This means that waking ateenager up at 6am is the biological equivalent of waking an adult up at 4am.On the unfortunate days when I have to wake up at 4am, I'm a zombie.Functionally useless. I can't think straight, I'm irritable, and I probablyshouldn't be driving a car. 

这意味着早上六点醒来的青少年，他的生理状况相当于凌晨四点醒来的成年人。在某些悲惨的日子里，我必须在凌晨四点起床，那时我就像是个僵尸。 一无是处。 我的思绪混乱，情绪烦躁，或许我连车都开不好。

 

But this is how many American teenagers feel everysingle school day. In fact, many of the, shall we say, unpleasantcharacteristics that we chalk up to being a teenager - moodiness, irritability,laziness, depression - could be a product of chronic sleep deprivation. Formany teens battling chronic sleep loss, their go-to strategy to compensate isconsuming large quantities of caffeine in the form of venti frappuccinos, orenergy drinks and shots. So essentially, we've got an entire population oftired but wired youth.

然而，这是许多美国青少年 每天上学时的感受。事实上我们可以说， 青少年有许多令人讨厌的特质： 例如情绪化、焦躁、懒惰、忧郁──这些都是长期睡眠不足所造成的。对许多青少年来说，要对抗长期性的睡眠不足，他们的补偿方式是藉由超大杯星冰乐或是能量饮料，来摄取大量的咖啡因。所以基本上 我们让所有的青少年变得疲惫而且焦躁不安。

 

Advocates of sleep-friendly start timesknow that adolescence is a period of dramatic brain development, particularlyin the parts of the brain that are responsible for those higher order thinkingprocesses, including reasoning, problem-solving and good judgment. In otherwords, the very type of brain activity that's responsible for reining in thoseimpulsive and often risky behaviors that are so characteristic of adolescenceand that are so terrifying to us parents of teenagers. 

主张友善睡眠与延后上课的倡导者了解到，青春期正是大脑剧烈发展的时期，特别是大脑结构当中，负责处理高层次思考的区域，会进行推理，问题解决和良好的判断。 换句话说，这种特殊型态的大脑活动，负责管控各种青春期所特有的冲动与危险行为，而这也是我们这些青少年的父母所担心的。

 

They know that like therest of us, when teenagers don't get the sleep they need, their brains, theirbodies and behaviors suffer with both immediate and lasting effects. They can'tconcentrate, their attention plummets and many will even show behavioral signsthat mimic ADHD.

他们知道，就像我们其他人一样，当青少年缺乏所需要的充足睡眠时，他们的大脑、身体和行为表现都会受到立即、持续的影响。他们无法集中精神，他们的注意力下降，许多人甚至会出现类似过动症的行为。

 

But the consequences of teen sleep loss gowell beyond the classroom, sadly contributing to many of the mental healthproblems that skyrocket during adolescence, including substance use, depressionand suicide. In our work with teens from LA Unified School District, we foundthat teens with sleep problems were 55 percent more likely to have used alcoholin the past month. 

但是，青少年睡眠不足的后遗症不只发生在课堂学习，更遗憾的是导致了在青春期 出现了许多精神健康问题，包括物质滥用、忧郁症和自杀等问题。在一项对于洛杉矶联合学区青少年所进行的研究，我们发现有睡眠问题的青少年当中，有超过 55% 的人在过去一个月曾经酗酒。

 

In another study with over 30,000 high school students, theyfound that for each hour of lost sleep, there was a 38 percent increase infeeling sad or hopeless, and a 58 percent increase in teen suicide attempts.And if that's not enough, teens who skip out on sleep are at increased risk fora host of physical health problems that plague our country, including obesity,heart disease and diabetes. 

另外一项针对三万多名高中生的研究发现，每减少一小时睡眠时间，青少年的沮丧或无助感会增加 38%，自杀的倾向也增加了 58% 。影响还不止这些，忽视睡眠的青少年，会有更高的机率罹患各种疾病，包括肥胖、心脏病和糖尿病。

 

Then there's the risk of putting a sleep-deprivedteen, with a newly minted driver's license, behind the wheel. Studies haveshown that getting five hours or less of sleep per night is the equivalent ofdriving with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit.

然后，对于一个睡眠不足的青少年，当他刚刚考取驾照，驾驶着汽车时，还会出现另一种风险。 研究显示，每晚的睡眠时间不到五个小时，就相当于血液中的酒精含量 超过法定标准的酒驾行为。

 

Advocates of sleep-friendly start times,and researchers in this area, have produced tremendous science showing thetremendous benefits of later start times. The findings are unequivocal, and asa sleep scientist, I rarely get to speak with that kind of certainty. Teensfrom districts with later start times get more sleep. 

主张友善睡眠、延后上学时间的倡导者，以及这个领域的研究人员，已经产出大量的科学证据，显示延后上课时间具有巨大效益。这些发现是很明确的，身为一位睡眠科学家，我很少说出如此肯定的结论。实施延后上课的地区，青少年能得到更多的睡眠时间。

 

To the naysayers who maythink that if schools start later, teens will just stay up later, the truth is,their bedtimes stay the same, but their wake-up times get extended, resultingin more sleep. They're more likely to show up for school; school absencesdropped by 25 percent in one district. And they're less likely to drop out. Notsurprisingly, they do better academically.

持反对意见者可能认为，如果学校延后上课时间，青少年也会较晚入睡；事实上， 他们入睡的时间并未改变，但是因为起床的时间延后了，所以睡眠更为充足。他们更愿意到学校上课，其中一个地区的学校旷课率下降了 25% 。因此学生更不会放弃课业。不出所料的，他们的课业表现也更好。

 

So this has real implications for reducingthe achievement gap. Standardized test scores in math and reading go up by twoto three percentage points. That's as powerful as reducing class sizes byone-third fewer students, or replacing a so-so teacher in the classroom with atruly outstanding one. 

所以这也对于减少成绩落差带来实际的效益。 在数学和阅读的标准化测验中，成绩也提升了两到三个百分点。 效果相当于将班级学生人数减少三分之一，或是以一位非常杰出的教师 取代原本教室里的普通老师。 

 

Their mental and physical health improves, and eventheir families are happier. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy a little morepleasantness from our teens, and a little less crankiness? Even theircommunities are safer because car crash rates go down - a 70 percent reductionin one district.

当学生的身心健康得到改善，甚至他们的家庭也会更加快乐。 我的意思是，有谁不喜欢 让我们的孩子拥有多一些快乐，以及少一些任性、焦躁呢？甚至，他们的小区变得更加安全，因为车祸肇事率下降了——其中一个地区甚至减少了 70% 。