光睡飽還不夠！

充足的睡眠有利于保持頭腦清醒和身體健康，但現(xiàn)在看來，僅僅有“充足的睡眠”并不夠。

A new study on sleep patterns suggests that a regular bedtime and wake time are just as important for heart and metabolic health among older adults.

一項針對睡眠模式的研究表明，就老年人的心臟和代謝問題來講，規(guī)律的就寢時間和起床時間同樣不可忽視。

In a study of 1,978 older adults publishing Sept. 21 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers at Duke Health and the Duke Clinical Research Institute found people with irregular sleep patterns weighed more, had higher blood sugar, higher blood pressure, and a higher projected risk of having a heart attack or stroke within 10 years than those who slept and woke at the same times every day.Irregular sleepers were also more likely to report depression and stress than regular sleepers, both of which are tied to heart health.

杜克大學健康研究所和臨床研究所的研究人員在9月21日的《科學報告》上發(fā)表了一項研究。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，相比規(guī)律作息的人，睡眠不規(guī)律的人更易長胖，血糖、血壓更高，在接下來的10年內(nèi)患心臟病或中風的風險也更高;更糟的是，他們也更容易產(chǎn)生壓力甚至是變得抑郁起來，而這兩者都與心臟的健康密不可分。

African-Americans had the most irregular sleep patterns compared to participants who were white, Chinese-American or Hispanic, the data showed.

數(shù)據(jù)還表明，與白人、華裔或西班牙裔美國人相比，非裔美國人的睡眠模式最不規(guī)則。

The findings show an association—not a cause-and-effect relationship—between sleep regularity and heart and metabolic health.

但作息規(guī)律與心臟、代謝健康之間還只是存在一定聯(lián)系，并非確鑿無疑的因果關(guān)系。

"From our study, we can't conclude that sleep irregularity results in health risks, or whether health conditions affect sleep," said Jessica Lunsford-Avery, Ph.D., an assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the study's lead author. "Perhaps all of these things are impacting each other."

杰西卡 · 倫斯福德-艾弗里博士是精神病學和行為科學的助理教授，也是這項研究的主要作者，他說："根據(jù)我們的研究，我們還不能確定，到底是睡眠不規(guī)律導致了健康風險攀升，還是健康狀況影響了睡眠。但也許所有這些因素都在互相影響。"

Still, the data suggest tracking sleep regularity could help identify people at risk of disease, and where health disparities may impact specific groups, such as African Americans.

盡管如此，數(shù)據(jù)仍說明，跟蹤睡眠規(guī)律可以用以識別有疾病風險的人，以及健康差異可能會影響特定群體。

"Heart disease and diabetes are extremely common in the United States, are extremely costly and also are leading causes of death in this country," she said. "To the extent we can predict individuals at risk for these diseases, we may be able to prevent or delay their onset."

她說:"心臟病和糖尿病在美國非常普遍，不僅治療成本極高，而且也是引起美國人死亡的主要原因。只要我們能夠預(yù)測這些疾病的風險，我們也許能夠預(yù)防或延緩這些疾病的發(fā)生。"

Participants used devices that tracked sleep schedules down to the minute so researchers could learn whether even subtle changes—going to bed at 10:10 p.m. instead of the usual 10 p.m.—were linked to the health of participants. Their ages ranged from 54 to 93, and people with diagnosed sleep disorders such as sleep apnea were not included.

實驗中，參與者使用的設(shè)備可以將睡眠時間精確到每分鐘，這樣研究人員就可以知道，即使是微妙的變化——比如晚上10點10分睡覺，和一般晚上10點準時睡覺時，健康狀況有何不同。 他們的年齡從54歲到93歲不等，其中并不包括睡眠障礙的人(如睡眠時呼吸暫停)。

The study also tracked the duration of participants' sleep and preferred timing—whether someone turned in early or was a night owl. According to these measures, people with hypertension tended to sleep more hours, and people with obesity tended to stay up later.Of all three measures, however, regularity was the best at predicting someone's heart and metabolic disease risk, the researchers found.

這項研究還跟蹤了參與者的日常睡眠時間和偏好的時間點，以檢查是否有人提前睡覺或是夜貓子。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，高血壓患者的睡眠時間更長，而肥胖的人往往睡的時間更晚;而規(guī)律性是預(yù)測人的心臟和代謝疾病風險的不二手段。

"Perhaps there's something about obesity that disrupts sleep regularity," Lunsford-Avery said. "Or, as some research suggests, perhaps poor sleep interferes with the body's metabolism which can lead to weight gain, and it's a vicious cycle. With more research, we hope to understand what's going on biologically, and perhaps then we could say what's coming first or which is the chicken and which is the egg."

博士說："也許是肥胖擾亂了睡眠規(guī)律。又或者，正如一些研究表明的那樣，睡眠不足可能會干擾身體的新陳代謝，從而導致體重增加，這是一個惡性循環(huán)。我們希望能通過更多的研究，了解生物學上的原理，這樣我們就可以知道，到底哪個是雞，哪個是蛋。"