Part I Background
Today we are talking about sleep.
So our article is quite interesting this week. It tells us about some new research. This research has
discovered that going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is more important, better for
your health than how many hours you sleep.
So we always thought that getting 8 or 9 hours sleep every night, it’s the most important thing. But it
seems, according to this research, that regular sleep, going to bed at the same time and getting up,
waking up at the same time, even if it’s just 6 hours of sleep, that seems to be better than 8 hours at
different times, at irregular times.
So what do we know about sleep? Well, sleep is when the body rests and your brain rests. All living
things need to sleep. Sleep allows the body to repair itself and sleep also helps learning ability and
memory. If you’re getting good sleep and you’re studying and learning, the sleep is going to help you
study and learn. And not enough sleep can cause health problems and affect things like concentration
and, as I mentioned, memory. So if you’re studying for exams or things like this, then actually, sleep is
really important. We have those pictures or we can imagine people staying up late at night trying to study,review, revise their notebooks and their textbooks. But actually, that’s actually quite bad for you.
So during exam times, getting lots of regular sleep is actually going to have a positive effect probably on
how much you can learn and remember in a short time.
So, let’s have a story about sleep.
As usual, I haven’t given this story a title. You can choose your own title and tell me in the comment
section.
Part II Story
It was bedtime.
Jacob went upstairs and climbed into bed. The moonlight was shining in through the window. Jacob felt
warm and cozy under his quilt. He closed his eyes.
‘Sleep,’ he whispered to himself.
That was the problem. Sleep, always the same, every night, no matter how tired he was, sleep never
came easily.
So he decided to try the way his mother had taught him, counting sheep jumping over a fence. He
closed his eyes and pictured a sheep and a fence.
‘One,’ he said, trying to imagine a cute fluffy sheep in his mind. But actually, the more he thought, the
more he tried to imagine, the green field in his mind was empty except for one single sheep. It stood
there, very still, not moving and definitely not making any effort to jump over the little red fence Jacob
had pictured in his imagination.
‘Excuse me,’ Jacob whispered to the sheep, ‘I need you to jump over the fence. I need to count you and
your friends jumping over that fence. That’s how I fall asleep, by counting you jumping over the fence.’
‘I’m not sure how to jump,’ the sheep replied, looking at the fence with wide, innocent eyes.
Jacob reassured the sheep: ‘but it’s easy. You do it all the time in my head. We do this every day, every
evening.’
‘Really,’ said the sheep, ‘that’s very strange because I don’t remember ever jumping over that fence. And it doesn’t look easy at all. It looks quite difficult and even a bit dangerous.’
‘Of course, you can’t remember because the memories are all in my head,’ said Jacob. ‘I’m the one who
imagines you jumping over the fence and you’ve done it lots of times with all your friends. It’s easy. I can
show you how. Just run up to the fence and hop over.’
The sheep watched carefully as Jacob got out of bed, took a little run and jumped over an imaginary
fence.
‘Like this,’ Jacob exclaimed, landing softly on the carpet on his bedroom floor.
‘That looked fun,’ said the sheep, sounding impressed. ‘But you are young and very fit and healthy. It’s
easy for you. I still think that fence is very high for me.’
Jacob paused, thinking about the sheep’s words: ‘well, not everyone has to jump high. Some people can
do smaller jumps. I can show you.’
And with that, Jacob imagined up a little girl no older than his younger sister, who ran for a few steps,
and then with a little jump, she hopped over the fence.
‘That was a nice little jump,’ the sheep said, nodding slowly. ‘But I’m not sure others can do it like you or
the little girl. Can you get someone else to try it?’
Jacob thought for a moment, then pictured his grandpa with his long white beard, approaching the fence.
With a smile, grandpa gently stepped over the fence, not jumping at all.
‘You see,’ said Jacob. ‘Even my grandpa can do it.’
‘That’s only two people, though,’ said the sheep. ‘Well, two people and you, so it’s only three in total.
If you want me to jump over that fence,’ said the sheep, ‘I’ll need to see more than three people do it.’
‘Okay, let’s get a whole line of people and they could all jump over the fence. You’ll see how easy it is,’
said Jacob with growing excitement. ‘And then you can try jumping over it.’
Jacob closed his eyes and pictured a long line of people from his town, all sorts of people, the baker in
her white clothes, the postman with his bag of letters, teenagers from down the street, the librarian with
her stack of books, the gardener with dirt still on his clothes, the nurse in her smart uniform, the teacher
holding a stack of papers, the fisherman, the painter, and even the mayor with his shiny gold chain. One
by one, they approached the little red fence and jumped over it, some with high jumps, some with small
hops, and some simply stepping over.
The sheep began to count each person as they jumped: ‘1, 2, 3 …’
The long line of people continued to jump over the fence. Jacob reassured the sheep: ‘Look, see how
easy it is? I think you can do it. You can have a try.’
But the sheep just kept counting as people jumped over the fence: ‘11… 12… 13… 14…’
The long line of people continued to jump over the fence. And Jacob turned to the sheep and said: ‘I told
you it was easy. Now come on, it’s your turn.’
But the sheep wasn’t listening. Its eyes were closed and it was snoring.
‘Zzzzzzzz’
It was fast asleep.
It was dreaming
原文朗读：
原文
The Sleep Habit That’s More Important Than Getting 8 Hours
There is hope for those of us who live (and sleep) in the real world (not the imaginary world): Getting less
than 8 hours of shut-eye a night doesn’t mean you’re doomed to an early grave.
A recent study looking at sleep and longevity found that sleep “regularity”—going to bed and waking up
at consistent times with few mid-slumber (during sleep) interruptions—matters more than how long you
sleep.
Sleeping six hours every night on a consistent schedule (I say shed-yool, that’s British English. American
English, skedzh-ool. So British: on a consistent schedule) was associated with a lower risk of early death
than sleeping eight hours with very irregular habits.
The study, published in the journal Sleep, (There’s actually a journal called Sleep where scientists just, I
don’t know, they just do research about sleep. This journal) found that sleep regularity reduced the risk
of premature death from any cause by 20% to 48% compared with those with the most irregular sleep.
Irregular sleep habits included inconsistent sleep and wake times, interrupted sleep and napping.
Sleep duration was still important: People who got long, consistent sleep had the lowest mortality risk,
says Angus Burns, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School who co-wrote the study. But shorter,
regular sleep was generally associated with lower mortality than longer, inconsistent sleep.
That is welcome news for people whose work and family demands make it difficult to get the
recommended seven to nine hours a night.
讲解
Let’s look at the article. It’s quite simple.
I think we’ve covered the most important ideas in the introduction today.
So the title:
The Sleep Habit That’s More Important Than Getting 8 Hours
So sleeping at the same time every day is more important than sleeping for 8 hours. We will learn this
from the article.
There is hope for those of us who live (and sleep) in the real world (not the imaginary world): Getting less
than 8 hours of shut-eye a night doesn’t mean you’re doomed to an early grave.
A recent study looking at sleep and longevity found that sleep “regularity”—going to bed and waking up
at consistent times with few mid-slumber (during sleep) interruptions—matters more than how long you
sleep.
For people who have normal daily working lives, this is good news. If you sleep less than 8 hours, it
doesn’t mean you’ll have health problems. What’s more important is sleeping and waking at the same
time every day.
The article continues:
Sleeping six hours every night on a consistent schedule (I say shed-yool, that’s British English. American
English, skedzh-ool. So British: on a consistent schedule) was associated with a lower risk of early death
than sleeping eight hours with very irregular habits.
So sleeping for six hours at the same time each night was linked to a smaller chance of dying early
compared to sleeping for eight hours but at different times.
The study, published in the journal Sleep, (There’s actually a journal called Sleep where scientists just, I
don’t know, they just do research about sleep. This journal) found that sleep regularity reduced the risk
of premature death from any cause by 20% to 48% compared with those with the most irregular sleep.
Irregular sleep habits included inconsistent sleep and wake times, interrupted sleep and napping.
The research in this Sleep journal showed that having regular sleep patterns can decrease the chance of
dying early by 20% to 48%. So I guess it’s between those two numbers between 20% to 48%. That’s
how I read this sentence. it’s a bit confusing. Let’s have a look at it again. Reduce the risk of premature
death from any cause by 20% to 48%. So I think it’s between those numbers when compared to those
who sleep at different times every day or people who sleep then wake up during their sleep or take naps.
Then the article tells us:
Sleep duration was still important: People who got long, consistent sleep had the lowest mortality risk,
says Angus Burns, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School who co-wrote the study. But shorter,
regular sleep was generally associated with lower mortality than longer, inconsistent sleep.
So what is it all mean? How long you sleep still matters according to a man called Angus Burns from
Harvard Medical School, who helped write the study. People who sleep for a longer time without
interruption have the smallest chance of dying early. However, sleeping for a shorter, fixed amount of
time is usually better than sleeping for a long time without a regular fixed schedule. So if we believe this
study, and it is just one study, so we need to be careful, then we should go to bed and wake up at the
same time every day, because that is better for our health and it will help us to live longer. Oh, and the
article tells us that naps are bad. So if you believe this study, no napping.
And in the last sentence:
That is welcome news for people whose work and family demands make it difficult to get the
recommended seven to nine hours a night.
So this is good news for anybody who has a busy work and family life and those busy people might not
be able to get eight hours a night, seven to nine hours. So busy people who sleep less, that’s not bad. It
doesn’t, it’s not bad news now because we know that just going to bed at the same time and waking up,
possibly, we’re not 100% sure, according to this study, that’s better for your health.
Part III Vocabulary
- shut-eye
Shut-eye means sleep. It’s kind of an informal slang word and we use it mostly in speaking. And we use
it to mean like a short sleep or a nap.
- After a busy morning, she needed some shut-eye in the afternoon.
- It’s really late. I need to get some shut-eye because I need to get up early tomorrow morning.
- an early grave
We use this phrase to mean dying young or you die before your natural age. You go to an early grave.
Sometimes we say things can send you or lead you to an early grave.
- Smoking can lead to an early grave if you’re not careful.
- Living a healthy life can help you avoid an early grave.
- longevity
Longevity means living for a long time or when a thing lasts for a long time.
- Good habits, like exercising, can contribute to longevity.
- Some animals are known for their longevity, like tortoises that can live for many years.
- slumber
Slumber means a peaceful, deep sleep.
- The dog fell into a deep slumber beside the fire.
- The loud alarm clock woke me from my slumber.
- reduce the risk of
We use this expression to mean we lower the chances of something happening. There is less chance
that something will happen.
- Eating fruit and vegetables can reduce the risk of getting sick.
- Wearing a helmet while cycling reduces the risk of head injuries.
- premature
If something is premature, it is too early. It happens or is done too soon before the right time. When we
talk about professional sports players, we might say:
- His serious knee injury was the reason for his premature retirement. He retired too soon, too early
because of his injury. - He thought he had passed the exam, but his excitement was premature. When the results arrived, he
realized he had failed.
5
- nap
Now we all know nap can be a noun or a verb. It’s a short sleep during the day. And to nap means to
have a short rest or sleep. Now we often use it with the verb take.
- I usually take a quick nap after lunch for about 20 minutes or so.
Now, but there’s an interesting expression here, to be caught napping.
Most people don’t know this expression, but it’s quite a useful English expression.
If someone is caught napping, something happens to that person that they are not prepared for. They
didn’t see this event coming. They weren’t ready for it. - Our competitor has released a similar product before ours and at a lower price. We’ve been caught
napping. It’s like we were asleep. We didn’t notice what our competitors were doing.
So to be caught napping, quite a good expression.
- mortality
Mortality means being able to die. And we use it as a measurement of how and when people die.
- Mortality from heart disease varies from country to country.
- The study showed a direct link between obesity and mortality.
- welcome news
So news is the noun, welcome is the adjective. We use this expression to mean hearing something good
or positive that makes you happy. Some good news that you hear or read. We often use it with come as:
this comes as welcome news.
- The announcement about lower ticket prices came as welcome news for most people.
- The new property law comes as welcome news for homeowners.
- demands
Demands are things that are asked for or required. They are what someone or something needs. And in
this way we use it always in the plural form.
- The physical demands of running a Marathon were too much for me. I gave up.
- Meeting the demands of this job can be quite challenging