Having a glowing smartphone in your bedroom at night could do more than interrupt your beauty sleep – it could also make you fat, researchers have warned.

新的研究表明，晚上睡觉时在卧室里给手机充电不只会干扰美容觉，还有可能会使人变胖。

They say that our bodies need pitch-black dark to produce the right levels of a hormone¹ involved in regulating the conversion² of food and drink into energy.

我们的身体需要在漆黑的黑暗环境下才会分泌正常水平的一种调节食物和饮料转换成能量的激素。

It means ambient light from street lamps can disrupt the release of melatonin and prevent us burning food as efficiently³.

这意味着连周围的路灯灯光都会扰乱褪黑激素的释放量，影响身体燃烧食物能量的效果。

But scientists say short-wavelength blue light, which is emitted by some devices when they are charging, is the most disruptive to sleep – and consequently our metabolism⁴.

但是科学家说，一些设备充电时发出的短波蓝光对是睡眠最具破坏性，会影响到我们的新陈代谢。

Although it is not bright enough to light up a room, it still disrupts our bodies, they said. A team at the University of Granada in Spain discovered that injections of melatonin helped combat obesity⁵ and diabetes⁶ in rats by helping⁷ to regulate their systems.

虽然这样的光线不足以照亮房间，但还是会影响我们的身体状况。西班牙格拉纳达大学的一个研究小组发现，给小鼠注射褪黑激素通过帮助调节体内系统能够有助于对抗肥胖症和糖尿病。

Now experts at Manchester University are investigating how regulating sleep patterns might help patients who already have diabetes, a disease often linked with obesity.

目前曼彻斯特大学的专家们正在调查如何通过调节睡眠模式来帮助治愈患有糖尿病的患者，糖尿病往往与肥胖相关。

Dr Simon Kyle, a sleep researcher at the university, said: ‘A lot of people are interested in this at the moment given that as a 24-hour society, sleep deprivation⁸ is increasing and we are exposing ourselves to artificial light at night.

该大学的睡眠研究员西蒙·凯尔博士说：“很多人都对这个问题感兴趣，在24小时的社会环境下，剥夺睡眠增加了我们身体接触人造光的时间。”

‘We are interested in how an alteration⁹ in the sleep-wake pattern may be involved in the onset¹⁰ of diabetes and obesity and if, when you improve the timing¹¹ of sleep you can also have a positive effect on conditions like diabetes and obesity.

“我们对如何改变糖尿病和肥胖症发病初期的睡眠模式很感兴趣，如果改善睡眠时间，这将会对如糖尿病和肥胖症有着积极的影响作用。”

'There is a lot of research showing we are meant to be asleep at night when darkness falls and melatonin rises and when the sun rises the melatonin is blocked by the sun. This light-dark cycle is good for our bodies to predict changes in the environment.

“有很多研究证实，晚上当夜幕降临后我们褪黑激素的分泌量在升高，而当太阳升起的时候，我们身体的新陈代谢随之停止，环境的周期性变化对我们的身体有好处。”

‘So if you start sleeping shorter, or receive light at the wrong time late into night, it disrupts melatonin secretion¹² and that could contribute to alterations¹³ in metabolism.’

“所以，如果你的睡觉时间开始变短，或在深夜这段时间让身体错误地接收光线，就会扰乱褪黑激素的分泌，导致代谢的改变。”

Blue light is the most damaging because it keeps the mind buzzing, he added.

凯尔博士说，蓝光是最具破坏性的，因为蓝光会使头脑嗡嗡作响。

Earlier this year, leading scientists from universities including Oxford¹⁴, Cambridge and Harvard, warned that a lack of sleep can cause severe health problems, such as cancer, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, because it upsets the body clock.

今年年初，来自牛津、剑桥和哈佛大学的科学家们警告称，睡眠不足会导致严重的健康问题，比如癌症、心脏病、二型糖尿病和肥胖症等，因为睡眠不足会打乱身体生物钟。

They said the modern phenomenon was being fuelled by our use of devices late at night which emit blue light.

他们说，我们在深夜使用发蓝光的设备已经是现代社会的普遍现象。

Dr Kyle advised turning off smartphones, tablets and desktop¹⁵ computers a couple of hours before going to bed to reduce exposure to artificial light.

凯尔博士建议在睡觉前的几个小时就关掉智能手机、平板电脑和台式电脑，减少接触人造光的环境。

He added: ‘There is strong basic science and data to show the association between sleep interference and disease.

他补充说：“有强大的基础科学和数据证实睡眠干扰和疾病之间有着直接关系。

‘If you can have complete darkness at night time you might be able to recreate time’s pre-industrial period and have a stab at improving the obesity epidemic¹⁶.’

“如果你能在晚上处于完全黑暗的环境中，就像重新回到前工业化时期那样，就能对控制肥胖流行病有改善作用。”