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現，睡眠時長與基因之間存在直接聯系。

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.
我們人體的每一個細胞中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。

Genes to do with cell repair and replenishment were used much less.
對有關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（他們的活性降低），另外160種表達上調（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的基因都受到了影響，而它們又都與糖尿病有關。

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。而表達上調程度最高的基因則與心臟病有關聯。

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，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