睡眠不足怎麼辦?

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）醫生位於曼徹斯特的診所時通常希望這位睡眠專家能告訴他們每晚安穩入睡8小時的方法。但相反的是，桑迪醫生往往會告訴他們睡眠不足時的應對方法。

"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."
"有些患者的確會轉身就走，另尋醫生，但留下來的那些人一般都會受益，"她說道。"應對睡眠不足是一項重要技能--一旦學會，就再也不用擔心睡眠不足了--而且，你的睡眠模式通常也會因此逐漸穩定。"

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.
對於大多數人而言，睡眠不足會導致煩躁、難受，和疲憊。更糟糕的是，睡眠不足通常與下列情況相關--認知障礙、心理健康問題、體重增加、患糖尿病的風險增加、癡呆和免疫力下降。

"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.
"當然，研究經常表明：早死風險增加是由於長期睡眠不足所致，"曼醫生承認道。"針對16項研究的一篇綜述發現：每晚睡眠不足6至8小時會使早死的風險增加12%--但和大多數情況一樣，在一定程度上，是我們自身原因導致了失眠這一問題。"

"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."
"我們的理想目標是不正常的。自然的睡眠模式是：幾小時的間斷睡眠-短暫休息-幾小時的間斷睡眠。但若果真如此，我們卻會認爲自己的睡眠不正常。整個行業都在爲獲得完美的夜間睡眠而努力，但追求8小時的酣睡卻並不正常。"

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.
曼醫生認爲，有些人難以入睡但有些人卻能輕易入睡的原因在於：難以入睡的人更擔心他們的睡眠。她給患者講過的最重要的一課就是--正是這種擔心（而不是因爲他們沒有睡在600根奢華埃及棉四件套上）導致他們的深度睡眠變少，所以減少擔心便會改善睡眠。

"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.
"古代人不會受失眠的困擾，因爲他們不會期望'酣睡'。但我們卻在失眠，因爲我們總在擔心有沒有符合當今期望。"