I’ve often wondered how exactly sleep, or lack of it , can have such a devastating¹ effect on our bodies and, guess what, how much we sleep switches good genes² on and bad genes off.

我时常思考，睡眠的充足与否会对我们的身体健康带来怎样严重的后果；也不禁去猜测，多久的睡眠才会让基因发挥有益作用。

In early 2013, the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey found a direct link between hours spent sleeping and genes.

2013年初，英国萨里大学的睡眠研究中心发现，睡眠时长与基因之间存在直接联系。

Every cell in our bodies carries genetic³ instructions in our DNA⁴ that act as a kind of operating manual. However, each cell only ‘reads’ the portion of this manual it needs at any given moment.

我们人体的每一个细胞中DNA所携带的遗传指令都相当于一套操作说明。然而在任何时候，细胞都只能够读取其需要的说明。

Can sleep affect how a gene reads instructions? It’s a question asked by Professor Derk-Jan Dijk at the University of Surrey.

睡眠能够影响基因读取其操作说明吗？萨里大学的教授德克-简•迪克提出了这一问题。

He set up an experiment and asked his volunteers to spend a week sleeping around seven and a half hours to eight hours a night and the next sleeping six and a half to seven hours.

他着手进行了一项实验，要求志愿者们每晚睡大约七个半到八个小时，一个星期后再将睡眠时间调整为六个半到七个小时。

Blood samples were taken each week to compare which genes in blood cells were being used during the long and short nights. The results were startling.他将志愿者这两周的血液样本进行比对，观察在不同睡眠时长下，血细胞中的基因运作情况有何不同。实验结果令人大吃一惊。

Several hundred genes changed in the amount they were being used, including some that are linked to heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes⁵.

数百种基因的使用状况因为睡眠时长的不同而改变，其中一些基因还与心脏病、癌症以及2型糖尿病有关。

Genes to do with cell repair and replenishment⁶ were used much less.

对有关细胞修复与补给的基因的使用大为减少。

Sleep restriction⁷ (six and a half to seven hours a night) changed 380 genes.

睡眠的受限（一晚只睡六个半到七个小时）改变了380种基因。

Of these, 220 genes were down regulated by sleep restriction (their power was reduced), while 160 were up regulated (their power was increased).

其中，有220种基因表达下调（他们的活性降低），另外160种表达上调（他们的活性上升）。

Those affected⁸ included body-clock genes which are linked to diabetes.

那些包括控制生物钟在内的基因都受到了影响，而它们又都与糖尿病有关。

One of the most downgraded genes is that which has a role in controlling insulin and is linked to diabetes and insomnia⁹. The most upgraded gene is linked to heart disease.

在表达下调程度最高的基因中，有一种负责控制胰岛素合成的基因与糖尿病和失眠密切相关。而表达上调程度最高的基因则与心脏病有关联。

So changing sleep by tiny amounts can upgrade or downgrade genes that can influence our health and the diseases we become prey¹⁰ to when we sleep too little.

因此，稍微缩短睡眠时长就会改变基因的运作状态，进而影响到我们的身体健康。若是睡得太少，疾病说来就来。

The important message is that getting close to eight hours of sleep a night can make a dramatic difference to our health in just a few days through the way it looks after our genes.

实验所传达的重要信息是，保证每晚近八小时的睡眠是对我们的基因负责；仅仅几天的充足睡眠，我们的健康也会有巨大的改观。

So resist staying up late to listen to another podcast, read one more chapter, have one more drink or do a little bit more work, mistakenly thinking it won’t make much difference. It will.

所以说，要是你坚持熬夜再看一个视频，再多读一章小说，再多贪一杯酒或是再多干点儿活，还安慰自己这没什么大不了的话，那你会后悔的。