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.

研究者警示人们：晚上睡觉时在卧室给手机充电不仅会干扰美容觉，还可能会使人变胖。

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

我们的身体需要在漆黑的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。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. Although it is not bright enough to light up a room, it still disrupts our bodies, they said.

但是科学家说，一些设备充电时发出的短波蓝光对睡眠的干扰最大，并且会影响到我们的新陈代谢。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。

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.

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能够通过帮助调节体内系统来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研究调节睡眠模式可能对糖尿病患者产生怎样的帮助作用，而糖尿病往往与肥胖有关。

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：“24小时制社会对睡眠剥夺的增加，使我们在晚上依然将身体暴露在人造光中，因此很多人对这个问题产生了兴趣。”

"We are interested in how an alteration⁹ in the sleep-wake pattern may be involved in th 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."

“我们对睡眠模式的改变与糖尿病和肥胖症发作有何种联系，以及改善睡眠时间是否对糖尿病和肥胖症有着积极作用很感兴趣。”

"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."

“大量研究表明，夜幕降临后人体褪黑激素的分泌量会增多，这时我们应该睡觉，而太阳升起之后褪黑激素的分泌会受到抑制。这种光暗循环有助于我们的身体适应环境的变化。”

"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，如果你的睡眠时间开始变短，或在深夜时分让身体错误地接收光线，就会影响褪黑激素的分泌，从而造成新陈代谢的失衡。”

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

凯尔博士接着说，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、剑桥和哈佛大学的权威科学家们警告人们，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，因为它会扰乱生物钟。

They said the modern phenomenon¹⁵ 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使得睡眠不足成为现代社会的普遍现象。

Dr Kyle advised turning off smartphones, tablets and desktop¹⁶ 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，以减少接触人造光的时间。

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

他补充说：“大量的基础科学和数据显示了睡眠干扰和疾病之间的联系。

"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 epidemic¹⁷."

“如果你能在晚上处于完全黑暗的环境中，你就能重新创造出前工业时期的环境，并且在对肥胖流行病的控制上有所改善。”