時差N小時:值夜班的危害 Working The Night Shift

It's time to go again to the A Moment of Sciencemailbag. Alistener writes:

又到了我們查看《科學(xué)一刻》欄目讀者來信的時候了，一位聽眾這樣寫道：

Dear A Moment of Science,

親愛的《科學(xué)一刻》欄目，

My husband works a night shift, and I'm worriedthat it might be affecting his health.

現(xiàn)在我丈夫在值夜班，我很擔心這樣會影響他的健康。

He sleepsduring the day, but somehow that doesn'tseem the same as getting a good night's rest.

他現(xiàn)在都是白天睡覺，但不知怎么回事，這樣休息的效果看似不如晚上休息那么好。

Am I worrying unnecessarily, or not?

我的擔心是否有必要呢?

Actually, burning the midnight oil, as it were, may raise the risk for depression and somelearningdeficits.

實際上，熬夜會增加人們罹患抑郁的風(fēng)險，并且會導(dǎo)致學(xué)習(xí)能力不足。

But not only because people who work at night don't get enough sleep.

但是，這并不完全是因為在晚間工作的人們沒得到足夠的休息。

According to onestudy, scientists think it's also because of too much exposure to light.

根據(jù)一項研究，科學(xué)家們認為過多地暴露在光線下也是原因之一。

Because it raises the levels of stresshormones in the body, hormones that have been linked todepression and to slower cognition.

因為光線會使得人體內(nèi)應(yīng)激激素水平增加，這種激素是與抑郁情緒和緩慢的認知有聯(lián)系的。

Now, it's worth noting that the study was done on mice.

現(xiàn)在，值得注意的是，這項試驗是在小白鼠身上進行的。

And although mice are sensitive to overexposure to light in ways similar to people, howhumans reactto light is not identical to mice.

盡管小白鼠對于過度暴露在光線下的敏感反應(yīng)與人類相似，但人類對光線的反應(yīng)與小白鼠還是不盡相同的。

Still, though, it's also worth considering that humans evolved over millions of years rising withthesun and going to sleep when it got dark.

同時，人類在幾百年來的進化過程中形成的日出而作日落而息的生活習(xí)慣也是值得考慮的一個因素。

It's only relatively recently, with the advent of artificiallight, that we began being exposed tolight at all hours of the day and night.

但是，由于近代人造光的發(fā)明，人類開始日日夜夜暴露在光線下。

So it's not such a radical notion that being up at night in the light when the body is built tobeasleep in the dark could have some detrimental effects.

因此，人們在本該休息的夜間暴露在光下工作會產(chǎn)生一定的不利影響，這并不是一種激進的思維方式。

The science on the question is still evolving, but the bottom line is that there's some reason tobewary of being too much in the light.

在這個問題上，科學(xué)知識仍在繼續(xù)發(fā)展和壯大，但是過多地暴露在光線下這個問題還是需要人們警覺的。