但是，在某种程度上正是因为睡眠太过司空见惯了，很长一段时间里科学家都没有察觉到这个课题。只是在过去约半个世纪里，它才引起了研究者的潜心钻研。科学记者肯尼斯·米勒的新书记录了这个领域短暂但迷人的历史。

The book is organised around the life and hard work of four scientists. The patriarch of the field is Nathaniel Kleitman, whose presence looms largest. A Jewish man born in what is now Moldova, he emigrated to America in 1915, escaping Russian pogroms before setting up a pioneering sleep-research programme at the University of Chicago.

本书围绕四位科学家的人生与辛勤工作展开。该领域的奠基人是纳撒尼尔·克莱特曼,他的影响最为深远。他是犹太人，出生于现在的摩尔多瓦，1915年为躲避俄国人的大屠杀而移居美国，之后在芝加哥大学设立了开创性的睡眠研究项目。

The early pages of the book, before there is much in the way of established science to describe, are the weakest. A good deal of time is spent on biographical details and pen portraits of the world through which Kleitman moved. But the story soon picks up.

本书的开头部分最为单薄，因为还没有什么成熟的科学研究可以讲述。大量篇幅花在了人物生平细节和对克莱特曼经历的描述上。但故事很快就加快了节奏。

It roams from the discovery of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep and circadian rhythms—the biological clocks that govern humanity’s days—to the effects of sleep deprivation (which can be fatal, at least in lab animals). It also probes the purpose, if any, of dreams.

从发现快速眼动期和昼夜节律（支配人类日夜的生物钟），讲到睡眠剥夺的影响（至少对实验动物可能是致命的）。它还探究了做梦的目的（如果有的话）。

Underlying it all is a sense of psychology’s slow maturing as a science. New technologies such as electroencephalographs, which monitor electrical activity in the brain, have offered practitioners the ability to study brains directly, rather than trying to infer what they are doing from the behaviour of their owners.

在这一切的背后，读者可以感受到心理学作为一门科学的缓慢成熟。脑电图仪等监测脑电活动的新技术让研究人员可以直接研究大脑，而不是试图通过大脑主人的行为来推断大脑的活动。

Mr Miller has a good eye for a great scientific story. One of Kleitman’s best-known experiments involved spending 32 days in a dark cave as he worked to shed light onthe limits of the body’s inbuilt circadian clock. The author is happy to show research as it is really done, indignities and all.

米勒善于发现精彩的科学故事。克莱特曼最著名的实验之一就是在一个黑暗的洞穴里待了32天，试图揭示人体内的昼夜节律时钟的极限。作者乐此不疲地展示研究工作的真实过程，包括各种令人难堪的细节。

One section describes a more modern, quantitative sort of circadian-rhythm research that took place in a purpose-built facility in a Bavarian village. The lab sported two apartments, with no window or clocks to clue their occupants into what was happening outside.

其中一节描述了在巴伐利亚的村庄一个专门建造的实验设施里进行的更现代、更定量的昼夜节律研究。这个实验室有两套公寓，没有窗户，也没有时钟，里面的人无法获知外界状况。

Test subjects lived there for weeks, free to wake and doze whenever they liked—but never free from the rectal thermometers that were attached to wall sockets by long cables.

受试者在那里住了几个星期，可以随时醒来或睡下，但始终插着直肠温度计，长长的电线将这些温度计连接到墙上的插座。

There is a serious side, too. Shift work interferes with the body’s internal clocks and raises the riskof illness, including heart disease and diabetes. Mr Miller explains medicine’s slow recognition of sleep apnea, a common affliction, and the damage it can inflict.

书里也有严肃的一面。倒班工作会干扰人体的内部时钟，增加患上心脏病和糖尿病等疾病的风险。米勒解释了医学界如何缓慢认识到睡眠呼吸暂停这种常见疾病及其可能造成的伤害。

It is caused by the airway repeatedly collapsing during sleep. Sufferers endure hundreds of episodes of oxygen deprivation every night (the characteristic gasping and snorting comes when a bodily reflex forces sleepers to take a desperate breath of air).

它是由睡眠中气道反复塌陷造成的。患者每晚都要忍受数百次缺氧（当身体本能反射迫使睡眠者拼命呼吸空气时，就会出现特有的喘息和鼾声）。

If left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to crippling exhaustion or worse. Mr Miller relates the case of a brother and sister who both suffered from the condition. The brother was eventually cured by having a small hole cut in his throat, but years of oxygen deprivation at night had caused irreversible brain damage in his sister.

如果不及时治疗，睡眠呼吸暂停会让人疲惫不堪，甚至更糟。米勒讲述了一对兄妹的病例，他们都患有睡眠呼吸暂停。哥哥最终通过在喉咙上开一个小孔而被治愈，但多年的夜间缺氧对妹妹造成了不可逆的脑损伤。

Discoveries often lead to new questions in turn. That is why neat, tidy endings are hard to achieve in science books; this one is no different. Despite all the progress of the past 50 years, scientists are still unsure what sleep is for. The fact it is so widespread suggests it is vital.

科学发现往往又会引发新的问题。这就是为什么科学类书籍鲜有干净利落的结尾，这本书也不例外。尽管过去50年来取得了长足进步，但科学家仍不清楚睡眠到底有何用。睡眠如此普遍，表明它极为重要。

But why evolution would see fit to produce animals that must spend large amounts of their time insensate and unable to respond to threats is still a mystery researchers are trying to solve. For anyone curious about asking the right questions, however, Mr Miller’s book is a good place to start.

但是，为什么进化要让动物必须花费大量时间失去知觉、无法对威胁做出反应——这仍然是研究人员试图解开的谜题。不过，对于任何有兴趣提出正确的问题的人，米勒的书都是一个很好的起点。

(红色标注词为重难点词汇)

重难点词汇：

commonplace [ˈkɑːmənpleɪs] adj. 平常的；平凡的；普通的；平庸的

shed light on使（事情）变得清楚；阐明

indignity [ɪnˈdɪɡnəti] n. 侮辱；耻辱

affliction [əˈflɪkʃn] n. 痛源；苦事；痛苦

insensate [ɪnˈsɛnseɪt] adj. 无知觉的；无情的

来源：每日双语经济学人

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