We’ve been on the subject of sleep for quite some time now and I am sure you have come across the term sleep debt. What is it exactly? Remember in one of my posts, I mentioned that for every person, there is a certain amount of sleep that you need every night? Well, if you do not get this amount of sleep, then you incur sleep debt. Just like financial debt, sleep debt accumulates over time.
So, take my example – I am used to sleeping at least 10 hours a day. For the past 3 weeks, I have been sleeping 2 to 3 hours. That gives me sleep debt of 7 to 8 hours every day. This adds up to 49 to 56 hours per week! And just like financial debt, we all have to pay back sleep debt or otherwise pay the consequences.
What happens when you have sleep debt? The more hours you “owe,” the more tired you will be during the day and the more chances that you will fall asleep when you are not supposed to. This is why, for the past few days, I have been falling asleep at odd times during the day. More so, when the body cannot handle it anymore, you will simply sleep in later – there is nothing you can do about it. Of course, we can drink as much coffee and other stimulants as we want. They will help keep us awake. However, this simply means that we are not treating our bodies right.
译文:
你有没有背负着睡眠不足的债呢？
我们对于睡眠这项课题的研究已经持续了很长的一段时间了，我相信你对于睡眠不足之债这个词语肯定印象深 刻吧。它究竟是什么意思呢？记得在我的某篇帖子中我就提到了每个人每晚都有自己固有的睡眠长短的需要，如果你不能达到，那你就欠下了睡眠不足之债。就像金融负债一样，睡眠债也是随着时间逐步累积的。
举个例子—我已经习惯了一天至少睡10个小时。但在过去的3周里，我每天却只睡2到3小时。那每天我就欠下了7到8小时的睡眠债。那么一周累计下来就是49到56个小时！那么就像金融负债一样，我们要么快点还清睡眠债务要么就要为后果承担责任。
那么当你缺乏睡眠时候会出现什么情形呢？那就是你欠下来的时间越多，那你在白天的疲倦感就越明显，而你在正式场合打瞌睡的概率就越高。那就是为什么我在过去的几天里会在白天莫名其妙的就打瞌睡了。更有甚者，当你的机体不能再承受负荷运行时，你会过一会儿就快速入眠—对于此你似乎手足无措。当然，我们可以随心所欲的想喝多少咖啡和兴奋剂就喝多少。他们是有助于让我们清醒。然而，这就意味着我们根本不把自己的身体当身体了。