What if you could make your sleep more efficient? As a sleep scientist,
如果能让你的睡眠更有效率，如何？身为睡眠科学家，
this is the question that has captivated me for the past 10 years.
在过去的十年间， 我对这个问题很着迷。
Because while the lightbulb and technology have brought about a world of 24-hour work and productivity,
虽然电灯泡和科技已经造成了 二十四小时工作和生产力的世界，
it has come at the cost of our naturally occurring circadian rhythm
但这是有代价的， 代价就是我们自然的昼夜节律、
and our body's need for sleep. The circadian rhythm dictates our energy level throughout the day,
以及我们的身体对睡眠的需求。昼夜节律支配了我们 一整天中的能量多寡，
and only recently we've been conducting a global experiment on this rhythm, which is putting our sleep health
到最近，我们才针对此节律 进行了一项全球性实验，让我们的睡眠健康，
and ultimately our life quality in jeopardy. Because of this,
以及最终，我们的生命品质， 置身危险之中。因为这个理由，
we aren't getting the sleep we need, with the average American sleeping a whole hour less
我们没有得到我们需要的睡眠，美国人的平均睡眠时间
than they did in the 1940s. For some reason,
比 1940 年代整整少了一小时。因为某种原因，
we decided to wear it as a badge of honor that we can get by on not enough sleep.
我们决定把它当荣誉奖章来戴， 以睡眠不足却仍能过活为荣。
This all adds up to a real health crisis. Most of us know that poor sleep is linked to diseases
这些通通加起来， 就成了真实的健康危机。大部份人知道睡眠不足和疾病相关，
like Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes.
比如阿滋海默症、心血管疾病、中风、糖尿病。
And if you go untreated with a sleep disorder like sleep apnea, you're more likely to get many of these illnesses.
如果你有睡眠失调， 像睡眠窒息，却没去治疗，你就更可能会得到许多这类疾病。
But did you know about sleep's impact on your mental states? Poor sleep makes us make risky, rash decisions
但你知道睡眠对你的 心理状态有什麽冲击吗？睡眠不足会让我们做出 冒险、鲁莽的决策，
and is a drain on our capacity for empathy. When sleep deprivation literally makes us more sensitive to our own pain,
且它会消耗掉我们同理的能力。因为缺乏睡眠 真的让我们对痛苦更敏感，
it's not so surprising that we have a hard time relating to others and just generally being a good and healthy person
那就不足为怪，当我们睡眠不足时， 会很难和别人和睦相处，
when we're sleep-deprived. Scientists are now starting to understand
连大体上做个健康的好人都很难。科学家现在开始了解到
how not only the quantity but also the quality of sleep impacts our health and well-being.
睡眠的量与品质。都会影响我们的健康和幸福。
My research focuses on what many scientists believe is the most regenerative stage of sleep:
我的研究重点：是许多科学家认为 最有再生力的睡眠阶段：
deep sleep. We now know that generally speaking,
深度睡眠。我们现在知道，一般来说，
there are three stages of sleep: light sleep,
睡眠有三个阶段：浅睡期、
rapid eye movement or REM and deep sleep.
快速动眼期、及深度睡眠期。
We measure these stages by connecting electrodes to the scalp, chin and chest. In light sleep and REM,
我们测量这些阶段的方式， 是把电击贴在头皮、下巴、胸口。在浅睡期与快速动眼期、
our brain waves are very similar to our brain waves in waking life. But our brain waves in deep sleep have these long-burst brain waves
我们的脑波和我们醒着时非常相似。 但深睡时的脑波， 有很多长长的脉冲，
that are very different from our waking life brain waves. These long-burst brain waves are called delta waves.
和醒着时的脑波很不一样。這些長的脈衝 被稱為 δ（delta）波。
When we don't get the deep sleep we need, it inhibits our ability to learn
当我们没有得到我们需要的深睡时， 就会阻碍我们的学习能力、
and for our cells and bodies to recover. Deep sleep is how we convert all those interactions
我们的细胞和身体的恢复能力。 深睡让我们把白天的互动
that we make during the day into our long-term memory and personalities.
转换为长期记忆和个性。当我们渐年长，
As we get older, we're more likely to lose these regenerative delta waves.
我们就越有可能会失去 这些有再生力的 δ 波。所以从某个角度来看，
So in way, deep sleep and delta waves are actually a marker for biological youth.
深睡与 δ 波。其实算是生理年轻的标记。
So naturally, I wanted to get more deep sleep for myself and I literally tried almost every gadget, gizmo, device and hack out there --
当然我要自己多深睡点，而我真的几乎试过每一种，
consumer-grade, clinical-grade, what have you.
找得到的小玩意儿、小发明、装置，消费者等级或临床实验等级的。
I learned a lot, and I found I really do need, like most people, eight hours of sleep.
我学了很多，并且发现我和大部份人一样，
I even shifted my circadian component by changing my meals, exercise and light exposure,
真的需要睡足八小时。我甚至改变了我的生理节奏，
but I still couldn't find a way to get a deeper night of sleep . . . that is until I met Dr. Dmitry Gerashchenko
方法是改变我的进餐、运动、 和曝露在光线下的时间， 但仍然找不到睡得更深沈的方式，
from Harvard Medical School. Dmitry told me about a new finding in the literature,
直到我遇到了狄米崔盖瑞山柯博士，他是哈佛教授。
where a lab out of Germany showed that if you could play certain sounds at the right time in people's sleep,
狄米崔告诉我文献中的一项新发现，一间德国的实验室发现，
you could actually make sleep deeper and more efficient. And what's more, is that this lab showed
如果能够在人们睡眠的 正确时间播放某些声音， 就能让睡眠更深、更有效。
that you actually could improve next-day memory performance with this sound.
还有，这间实验室也发现，可用这种声音 来改善隔天的记忆表现。
Dmitry and I teamed up, and we began working on a way to build this technology.
我和狄米崔合作，我们开始想办法建立这种技术。
With our research lab collaborators at Penn State, we designed experiments in order to validate our system.
我们和在宾州州大实验室的合作者。一起设计实验来验证我们的系统。
And we've since received grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health
我们从国家科学基金会 和国立卫生研究院 得到补助金资助，
to develop this deep-sleep stimulating technology. Here's how it works.
来开发这种深度睡眠刺激技术。它是这样运作的。
People came into the lab and we hooked them up to a number of devices,
人们来到实验室，我们把他们和几个装置连结，
two of which I have on right here -- not a fashion statement.
我这里戴着其中两个装置，可不是时尚宣言。
(Laughter) When we detected that people were in deep sleep,
（笑声）当我们侦测到人们在深睡时，
we played the deep-sleep stimulating sounds that were shown to make them have deeper sleep.
就播放能刺激他们睡得更深的声音。我现在就来展示一下这个声音。
I'm going to demo this sound for you right now. (Repeating sound waves)
（重覆声波）很怪异，是吧？
Pretty weird, right? (Laughter)
（笑声）这声音的脉冲频率
So that sound is actually at the same burst frequency as your brain waves when your brain is in deep sleep.
其实和你的深睡脑波相同。那种声音模式
That sound pattern actually primes your mind to have more of these regenerative delta waves.
事实上能使你的大脑准备好，产生更多这些有再生力的 δ 波。
When we asked participants the next day about the sounds, they were completely unaware that we played the sounds,
当我们隔天问受试者这些声音，他们完全没意识到我们曾播放声音，
yet their brains responded with more of these delta waves. Here's an image of someone's brain waves from the study that we conducted.
而他们的脑却产生 更多的 δ 波以呼应这种声音。这张图是某个人的脑波， 在我们的研究中记录的。
See the bottom panel? This shows the sound being played at that burst frequency.
看到下面的区块吗？它呈现出这声音是用 那种脉冲频率来播放的。
Now look at the brain waves in the upper part of the graph. You can see from the graph
看看图中的上面区块，那些是脑波。 从图可以看出，
that the sound is actually producing more of these regenerative delta waves. We learned that we could accurately track sleep
播放这声音就能产生 更多有再生力的 δ 波。 我们学到能够准确地追踪睡眠，
without hooking people up to electrodes and make people sleep deeper.
而不用把电极贴在人身上，并且能让人睡得更深。
We're continuing to develop the right sound environment and sleep habitat
我们还在持续发展 对的声音环境和睡眠地点，
to improve people's sleep health. Our sleep isn't as regenerative as it could be,
来改善人们的睡眠健康。我们的睡眠还可以更有再生力，
but maybe one day soon, we could wear a small device
但也许，不久之後， 我们就可戴着一个小装置，
and get more out of our sleep. Thank you.
让我们从睡眠中获益良多。谢谢。
(Applause)
