A sleep expert talks insomnia¹, dreams

睡眠专家对失眠和梦境的见解

Sleep usually leaves people feeling rested and refreshed, but for the patients of clinical neurologist Guy Leschziner, their non-waking moments are generally anything but peaceful. One realizes that she's been taking her motorcycle out for a ride while fast asleep only after her landlady² asks her where she went. Another moves around in his sleep, acting³ out his dreams — and terrifying his partner in the process. Still others suffer from insomnia, sleep deprivation⁴, and night terrors.

睡觉通常会让人放松、神清气爽，但对临床神经学家Guy Leschziner的患者而言，他们的睡眠时刻一点儿都不平静。其中一位患者意识到，她一直在外面骑摩托车，只有当房东问她去哪了之后，她才能快速入睡。另一位患者会在睡梦中动来动去——甚至吓坏了另一半。而其他人则失眠、缺觉、夜惊。

Leschziner describes their cases. "These cases are interesting in two separate ways — the first is just simply the drama of the stories, the human experiences of these patients," Leschziner says. "But also, when one looks at the extremes, it informs us normal as well. By seeing these patients and seeing where the problem is in the brain, we understand something about how our brains regulate sleep."Leschziner描述了这些病例。“这些病例非常有趣，原因有二——其一，这只是戏剧性的故事，是这些患者的人性经历，”Leschziner说道。“但从极端角度而言，它也提醒了我们普通人。通过观察这些患者，了解他们大脑中的问题，我们逐渐了解大脑对睡眠的调节。”

The Verge⁵ spoke⁶ with Leschziner about what makes for a good night's sleep, what's going on in the brain when we dream, and how sleep disorders⁷ could provide a window into other health issues. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

The Verge期刊与Leschziner展开对话：怎样才算睡了个好觉？做梦时大脑会发生哪些变化？睡眠障碍如何带来其它健康问题？为清晰起见，我们已对本次采访略作编辑。

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You write a lot about abnormal sleep and the patients that you've encountered in your practice. I'd like to start off by asking about the opposite: what does a normal good night's sleep look like?

您写了很多关于睡眠异常及就诊患者的稿子。但我想从反方面问您一个问题：怎样才算睡了个好觉？

Sleep — as well as being an objective experience — is also a subjective⁸ experience. From an objective perspective, a good night's sleep is viewed as having a sufficiently⁹ consolidated¹⁰ night's sleep, divided into one or two tranches. If one looks at the population, seven to eight hours is seen as the optimal¹¹ amount of sleep. But for each individual, the subjective experience of sleep is somewhat different. There could be people who wake up several times a night, but wake up feeling refreshed. Whereas for other people, what is apparently¹² and objectively a good night's sleep, can make them feel extremely tired and unrefreshed. So there is this kind of disparity between the objective physical manifestation¹³ of sleep and the subjective experience.

睡觉既是一种客观经历，也是一种主观经历。从客观角度而言，夜间睡眠量充足即可认为睡了个好觉，这分为一或两个层次。就所有人而言，7至8小时睡眠被视为最佳睡眠量。但就个人层面而言，主观睡眠经历却略有不同。有些人可能会一夜醒来好几次，但睡醒后却觉得精神焕发。对其他人而言，客观的好觉会让他们觉得异常疲惫、无精打采。所以，这就是睡眠的客观身体表现和主观体验的差异。