19 · 话说梦的本质
The Stuff of Dreams
区分观点、依据、例子与限制，用自己的话准确重建论述。
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It is fairly clear that the sleeping period must have some function, and because there is so much of it the function would seem to be important. Speculations about its nature have been going on for literally thousands of years, and one odd finding that makes the problem puzzling is that it looks very much as if sleeping is not simply a matter of giving the body a rest. "Rest", in terms of muscle relaxation and so on, can be achieved by a brief period lying, or even sitting down. The body's tissues are self-repairing and self-restoring to a degree, and function best when more or less continuously active. In fact a basic amount of movement occurs during sleep which is specifically concerned with preventing muscle inactivity.
If it is not a question of resting the body, then perhaps it is the brain that needs resting? This might be a plausible hypothesis were it not for two factors. First the electroencephalograph which is simply a device for recording the electrical activity of the brain by attaching electrodes to the scalp shows that while there is a change in the pattern of activity during sleep, there is no evidence that the total amount of activity is any less. The second factor is more interesting and more fundamental. Some years ago an American psychiatrist named William Dement published experiments dealing with the recording of eye-movements during sleep. He showed that the average individual's sleep cycle is punctuated with peculiar bursts of eye-movements, some drifting and slow, others jerky and rapid. People woken during these periods of eye-movements generally reported that they had been dreaming. When woken at other times they reported no dreams. If one group of people were disturbed from their eye-movement sleep for several nights on end, and another group were disturbed for an equal period of time but when they were not exhibiting eye-movements, the first group began to show some personality disorders while the others seemed more or less unaffected. The implications of all this were that it was not the disturbance of sleep that mattered, but the disturbance of dreaming.
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整篇课文
It is fairly clear that the sleeping period must have some function, and because there is so much of it the function would seem to be important. Speculations about its nature have been going on for literally thousands of years, and one odd finding that makes the problem puzzling is that it looks very much as if sleeping is not simply a matter of giving the body a rest. "Rest", in terms of muscle relaxation and so on, can be achieved by a brief period lying, or even sitting down. The body's tissues are self-repairing and self-restoring to a degree, and function best when more or less continuously active. In fact a basic amount of movement occurs during sleep which is specifically concerned with preventing muscle inactivity.
If it is not a question of resting the body, then perhaps it is the brain that needs resting? This might be a plausible hypothesis were it not for two factors. First the electroencephalograph which is simply a device for recording the electrical activity of the brain by attaching electrodes to the scalp shows that while there is a change in the pattern of activity during sleep, there is no evidence that the total amount of activity is any less. The second factor is more interesting and more fundamental. Some years ago an American psychiatrist named William Dement published experiments dealing with the recording of eye-movements during sleep. He showed that the average individual's sleep cycle is punctuated with peculiar bursts of eye-movements, some drifting and slow, others jerky and rapid. People woken during these periods of eye-movements generally reported that they had been dreaming. When woken at other times they reported no dreams. If one group of people were disturbed from their eye-movement sleep for several nights on end, and another group were disturbed for an equal period of time but when they were not exhibiting eye-movements, the first group began to show some personality disorders while the others seemed more or less unaffected. The implications of all this were that it was not the disturbance of sleep that mattered, but the disturbance of dreaming.
睡眠显然具有某种作用；它占去的时间这么多，这种作用想必相当重要。人们猜测睡眠究竟有什么作用，确实已经猜了几千年。一个令人困惑的发现是，睡觉似乎不只是为了让身体休息。假如所谓“休息”只是指放松肌肉之类，躺一小会儿，甚至坐下来片刻，就能做到。身体组织在一定程度上能自行修复和恢复，而且在持续保持一定活动时，运作状态最好。事实上，人在睡眠中也会有一定量的身体活动，恰好能够防止肌肉完全不活动。
如果睡眠不只是为了让身体休息，那会不会是大脑需要休息呢？要不是以下两个因素，这倒是个说得通的假设。首先，脑电图仪——也就是把电极贴在头皮上，记录大脑电活动的仪器——显示，虽然人在睡眠中大脑活动的模式会改变，却没有证据表明活动总量减少了。第二个因素更有意思，也更为根本。几年前，美国精神科医生威廉·德门特发表了一些记录睡眠中眼球运动的实验。他发现，一般人的睡眠周期中，不时会出现一阵阵特殊的眼球运动：有的缓慢游移，有的急促跳动。在这些眼动期间被叫醒的人，通常说自己刚才在做梦；其他时候被叫醒，则说没有做梦。实验让一组人连续几夜在眼动睡眠期间被叫醒；另一组人也被打断同样长的时间，但安排在没有眼动的时候。结果，第一组开始出现一些人格方面的异常，另一组似乎基本不受影响。这些结果暗示，关键也许不在于睡眠被打断，而在于做梦被打断。
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译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第76—79页，2022年2月第2版。