2015年度全国职称英语考试综合C_2017职称英语考试综合类阅读理解英文及译文：睡眠

职称英语考试综合类阅读理解英文及译文：睡眠

我们都知道人们每天正常活动的周期是大约7~8小时的睡眠与大约16~17小时的清醒相交替。而且，一般说来，睡眠通常与黑夜的长短相一致。我们目前关心的是要改变这一周期可以多简单，并且可以改变到何种程度。

这不仅仅是一个简单的学术问题。例如，在工业上，在需要机器24小时连续工作的自动化操作中，使人们从白天工作变为晚上工作变得越来越重要了。通常一个人需要五天至一周的时间来适应与常规生活颠倒的睡眠时间和清醒时间，即白天睡觉，晚上工作。不幸的是，在工业上，工作班次每星期都变换的事经常发生；如一个人第一星期要从午夜12点工作到上午8点，下一个星期从上午点工作到下午休点，第三个星期又从下午休点工作到午夜以继日2点等等。这就意味着，他刚刚习惯了一种方式又不得不改为另一种。因此，他的很多工作和休息时间都不能得到效率的利用。

让每一班次都维持较长一段时间，一个月，甚至三个月，这似乎是一种解决方法。然而，荷兰人邦杰近来的研究结果表明，按照这些体制工作的人在周末会恢复他们通常的睡眠和清醒的习惯。而这已足够破坏其一周以来培养起来的对夜晚工作的适应性。

惟一真正的解决方法看来是将晚班交给一组在所有周末和假日里都能保持夜间不困永久做晚班的人。布朗曾做过一个关于上晚班的工人的家庭生活和健康状况的有趣的研究。她发现在那些早晚班换来换去的人群中，失眠，消化系统紊乱和家庭分裂有较高的发生率，但是在那些永久做晚班的人中这种反常征兆却没有。

Sleep

We all know that the normal human daily cycle of activity is of some 7-8 hour’s sleep alternating with some 16-17 hours' wakefulness and that, broadly speaking, the sleep normally coincides with the hours of darkness. Our present concern is with how easily and to what extent this cycle can be modified.

The question is no mere academic one. The case, for example, with which people can change from working in the day to working at night, is a question of growing importance in industry where automation calls insistently for round-the-clock working of machines. It normally takes from five days to one week for a person to adapt to a reversed routine of sleep and wakefulness, sleeping during the day and working at night. Unfortunately, it is often the case in industry that shifts are changed every week; a person may work from 12 midnight to 8 a. m. one week, 8 am to 4 pm the next, and 4 pm to 12 midnight the third and so on. This means that no sooner has he got used to one routine than he has to change to another, so that much of his time is spent neither working nor sleeping very efficiently.

One answer would seem to be longer periods on each shift, a month, or even three months. Recent research by Bonjer of the Netherlands, however, has shown that people on such systems will revert to their normal habits of sleep and wakefulness during the week-end and the this is quite enough to destroy any adaptation to night work built up during the week.

The only real solution appears to be to hand over the night shift to a corps of permanent night workers whose nocturnal wakefulness may persist through all weekends and holidays. An interesting study of the domestic life and health of night-shift workers was carried out by Brown. She found a high incidence of disturbed sleep, digestive disorder and domestic disruption among those on alternating day and night shifts, but no abnormal occurrence of these symptoms among those on permanent night work.

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