iPad都用在臥室了：科技設備毀了我們的睡眠？

About 35 percent of British adults sleep with teddy bears. Many more share a bed with a partner or spouse. Others still co-sleep, alongside children in a family bed.

在英國35%的成年人抱著泰迪熊睡覺，更多的是和自己的伴侶同床共枕。還有部分家庭仍然和小孩一起分享一張床。

But snuggling up with your iPad? A recent survey by marketing agency Rosetta found that 68 percent of tablet owners use the device in the bedroom, more than in any other location. The living room took a close second place, at 63 percent, reports AdAge.com, and only 45 percent of respondents said they use their tablets on the go.

那有抱著自己的iPad睡覺的嗎？最近由Rosetta運銷商發起的一項研究顯示，有68%的平板電腦用戶會青睞在臥室玩自己的寶貝。AdAge.網站報道稱，排在第二位的是客廳，占了63%的用戶數量。而只有45%的調查者表示自己隨處都在使用。

“It's just a lot easier to get cozy in bed with the iPad,” Joe Alvarado of Minneapolis told the Star Tribune. “It's really convenient for searching the Web, reading newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff.”

“躺在床上玩iPad舒適又方便，”來自美國明尼阿波里斯的喬·阿爾瓦拉多告訴《明星論壇報》記者，“躺床上我可以方便地搜索網絡、看報，逛Facebook和Twitter等等之類的?！?/p>

But bringing devices into the bedroom is a bad idea, if quality rest is your goal. One of the most important triggers of sleepiness is darkness, which signals to the brain that it's time to start ramping up production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. But, as the New York Times points out, in our modern world, we are exposed to light long after the sun sets. While any type of light can disturb your slumber, the blue wavelength light emitted by cell phones, laptops, tablets and other gadgets is particularly disruptive. Research shows that this blue light triggers alertness -- so decisively that it can actually be used to fight fatigue.

不過如果你想擁有高質量的睡眠，那枕著數碼設備睡覺就是個大錯誤。引發睡眠最重要的因素之一是黑暗，它告訴你的大腦這個時間需要加快生產誘發睡眠的荷爾蒙褪黑激素。但是紐約《時代周刊》指出，生活在現代社會的人們，即使在白天也被長時間地暴露在燈光之下。任何種類的燈光都可以擾亂我們的睡眠，但手機、筆記本、平板電腦以及其他小型數碼設備發出的藍色波長是干擾人睡眠的最大敵人。研究證明藍色的光線易引發人的警覺性，因此它實際上是用來保持精力，避免困乏的。

According to the National Sleep Foundation, 95 percent of Americans use some device, whether it's a TV, laptop, cell phone or other gadget, within an hour of hitting the hay. “Artificial light exposure between dusk and the time we go to bed at night … shiftscircadian rhythms to a later hour -- making it more difficult to fall asleep,” Charles Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D., chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and professor and director of the division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School said in a statement.

根據國家睡眠基金會數據顯示，95%的美國人在睡覺前的一小時都會玩玩電子產品，不管是電視、筆記本、手機或其他小型設備。“從黃昏到睡覺這段時間一直暴露在燈光之下，這使我們的生物鐘推后一小時，讓我們更加難以入眠，”布萊根婦女醫院睡眠醫學科主任查爾斯博士在一項聲明中這樣說，他同時也是哈佛醫學院睡眠醫學科的主任和教授。

Instead, experts recommend turning off all devices an hour before bedtime and finding another method for winding down, like reading a book, taking a warm bath or performing a series of calming yoga poses. It's also a good idea to exercise and lay off the caffeine several hours before bedtime.

專家建議，睡覺前不要玩iPad，睡前一小時關掉所有的電子設備，通過其他方式放松自己：比如讀本書，洗個熱水浴，或做做舒緩瑜伽。在睡前幾小時進行運動，讓自己體內的興奮劑提前消耗掉也是一個好主意。