I’ve often wondered how exactly sleep, or lack of it , can have such a devastating effect on our bodies and, guess what, how much we sleep switches good genes on and bad genes off.
我時常思考，睡眠的充足與否會對我們的身體健康帶來怎樣嚴重的后果；也不禁去猜測，多久的睡眠才會讓基因發(fā)揮有益作用。

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，英國薩里大學的睡眠研究中心發(fā)現(xiàn)，睡眠時長與基因之間存在直接聯(lián)系。

Every cell in our bodies carries genetic instructions in our DNA that act as a kind of operating manual. However, each cell only ‘reads’ the portion of this manual it needs at any given moment.
我們?nèi)梭w的每一個細胞中DNA所攜帶的遺傳指令都相當于一套操作說明。然而在任何時候，細胞都只能夠讀取其需要的說明。

Can sleep affect how a gene reads instructions? It’s a question asked by Professor Derk-Jan Dijk at the University of Surrey.
睡眠能夠影響基因讀取其操作說明嗎？薩里大學的教授德克-簡?迪克提出了這一問題。

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.
他著手進行了一項實驗，要求志愿者們每晚睡大約七個半到八個小時，一個星期后再將睡眠時間調(diào)整為六個半到七個小時。

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.他將志愿者這兩周的血液樣本進行比對，觀察在不同睡眠時長下，血細胞中的基因運作情況有何不同。實驗結(jié)果令人大吃一驚。

Several hundred genes changed in the amount they were being used, including some that are linked to heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes.
數(shù)百種基因的使用狀況因為睡眠時長的不同而改變，其中一些基因還與心臟病、癌癥以及2型糖尿病有關(guān)。

Genes to do with cell repair and replenishment were used much less.
對有關(guān)細胞修復與補給的基因的使用大為減少。

Sleep restriction (six and a half to seven hours a night) changed 380 genes.
睡眠的受限（一晚只睡六個半到七個小時）改變了380種基因。

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種基因表達下調(diào)（他們的活性降低），另外160種表達上調(diào)（他們的活性上升）。

Those affected included body-clock genes which are linked to diabetes.
那些包括控制生物鐘在內(nèi)的基因都受到了影響，而它們又都與糖尿病有關(guān)。

One of the most downgraded genes is that which has a role in controlling insulin and is linked to diabetes and insomnia. The most upgraded gene is linked to heart disease.
在表達下調(diào)程度最高的基因中，有一種負責控制胰島素合成的基因與糖尿病和失眠密切相關(guān)。而表達上調(diào)程度最高的基因則與心臟病有關(guān)聯(lián)。

So changing sleep by tiny amounts can upgrade or downgrade genes that can influence our health and the diseases we become prey to when we sleep too little.
因此，稍微縮短睡眠時長就會改變基因的運作狀態(tài)，進而影響到我們的身體健康。若是睡得太少，疾病說來就來。

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.
實驗所傳達的重要信息是，保證每晚近八小時的睡眠是對我們的基因負責；僅僅幾天的充足睡眠，我們的健康也會有巨大的改觀。

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.
所以說，要是你堅持熬夜再看一個視頻，再多讀一章小說，再多貪一杯酒或是再多干點兒活，還安慰自己這沒什么大不了的話，那你會后悔的。

英文來源：鏡報
譯者：劉佳麗
審校&編輯：丹妮