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我們先從白天與黑夜談起。生命的演化是在光照與黑暗的交替中進行,也就是日出而後日落,植物和動物因此發展出它們自己的內部時鐘,以便適應這種光線的變幻,這種由化學激素控制的時鐘,在我們所知的每一種多細胞生物,及一些單細胞生物中都觀察得到。
我來舉個例子,如果你從海灘上抓走一隻馬蹄蟹,將它運到大陸另一端,把它放進一個傾斜的籠子裡,它會在它家鄉岸邊漲潮的時間裡,爬上籠子較高的那一端,然後在數千哩外的海水退去時,又滑下籠子底部。它會重覆進行這種行為好幾個星期,直到漸漸搞不清楚自己身處何處為止。這看起來很不可思議,但並不是什麼靈異或超自然現象,只是這些螃蟹的內部時鐘能逐漸配合週遭環境而已。
人類也有這種能力,我們稱之為生理時鐘。最能清楚地看到生理時鐘的作用,就是當你拿走某人的手錶,然後把他關進一個深入地底的碉堡裡好幾個月,事實上,有些人還自願這麼做。通常當他們出來後,總是對自己清醒的時間胡說一通,不管他們所說的有多大差異,他們都表現出某種相同的行為,他們每天起床的時間都會稍微晚一些-假設晚15分鐘好了,他們待在碉堡裡這幾個星期當中,整個生理時鐘會像這樣不斷地往後推延,因此我們發現他們依照著自己的生理時鐘運作,而不是依照對外面日夜交替的感覺。
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
Let's start with day and night. Life evolved under conditions of light and darkness, light and then darkness. And so plants and animals developed their own internal clocks so that they would be ready for these changes in light. These are chemical clocks, and they're found in every known being that has two or more cells and in some that only have one cell.
I'll give you an example. If you take a horseshoe crab off the beach, and you fly it all the way across the continent, and you drop it into a sloped cage, it will scramble up the floor of the cage as the tide is rising on its home shores, and it'll skitter down again right as the water is receding thousands of miles away. It'll do this for weeks, until it kind of gradually loses the plot. And it's incredible to watch, but there's nothing psychic or paranormal going on; it's simply that these crabs have internal cycles that correspond, usually, with what's going on around it.
So, we have this ability as well. And in humans, we call it the body clock. You can see this most clearly when you take away someone's watch and you shut them into a bunker, deep underground, for a couple of months. People actually volunteer for this, and they usually come out kind of raving about their productive time in the hole. So, no matter how atypical these subjects would have to be, they all show the same thing. They get up just a little bit later every day -- say 15 minutes or so -- and they kind of drift all the way around the clock like this over the course of the weeks. And so, in this way, we know that they are working on their own internal clocks, rather than somehow sensing the day outside.
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好,我們有生理時鐘,這對我們的生活來說相當重要,也是推動文化的重要力量,我認為這是我們行為裡最被忽略的一股力量。人類是起源於赤道附近的種族,所以我們很能適應白天12個小時、夜晚12個小時的一日生活。但當然的,人類現在已散佈在全球每一個角落,在我居住的加拿大極地附近,夏天是永晝,冬天則是永夜,所以在北方的原住民文化裡傳統上的生活高度倚賴季節變化。在冬天,人們睡覺的時間很長,大家都待在屋內享受家庭生活。在夏天,幾乎總是無止盡的狩獵與相當長時間的工作活動,非常活躍。
那麼,人類自然的時間韻律是什麼模樣?人類的理想睡眠模式又是什麼情形?好,我們發現當人類生活中完全沒有任何人造光源時,每天晚上會有二次睡眠週期,他們會在晚上八點左右睡覺,直到午夜,然後再從二點左右睡到日出時分。在二次睡眠之間有好幾個小時是處於安靜的冥想階段,在這段期間裡,泌乳激素會大量分泌,這在現代人身上是觀察不到的。參與這項研究的人指出,他們在白天時感覺很清醒,是他們從未體會過的真正清醒感覺。
現在我們來談談現代人的生活。我們生活裡充斥著時差、全球旅行、24小時營業、輪班等現代文化,大家都知道,現代人的生活方式自有其優點存在,但我認為,我們應該瞭解所付出的代價為何。
謝謝。
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So fine, we have a body clock, and it turns out that it's incredibly important in our lives. It's a huge driver for culture, and I think that it's the most underrated force on our behavior. We evolved as a species near the equator, and so we're very well-equipped to deal with 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. But of course, we've spread to every corner of the globe, and in Arctic Canada, where I live, we have perpetual daylight in summer and 24 hours of darkness in winter. So the culture, the northern aboriginal culture, traditionally has been highly seasonal. In winter, there's a lot of sleeping going on. You enjoy your family life inside. And in summer, it's almost manic hunting and working activity very long hours, very active.
So, what would our natural rhythm look like? What would our sleeping patterns be in the sort of ideal sense? Well, it turns out that, when people are living without any sort of artificial light at all, they sleep twice every night. They go to bed around 8:00 pm. until midnight and then again, they sleep from about 2:00 am until sunrise. And in-between, they have a couple of hours of sort of meditative quiet in bed. And during this time, there's a surge of prolactin, the likes of which a modern day never sees. The people in these studies report feeling so awake during the daytime, that they realize they're experiencing true wakefulness for the first time in their lives.
So, cut to the modern day. We're living in a culture of jet lag, global travel, 24-hour business, shift work. And, you know, our modern ways of doing things have their advantages, but I believe we should understand the costs.
Thank you.