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Yael: It's time once again for the mailbag. Let's see what we have today. Dear A Moment of Science: I went to sleep one time and slept for twenty years. What in the world happened to me? Signed Rip.
雅艾尔：又到了读信时间。来看看今天收到了什么。亲爱的《科学一刻》栏目组：有一次我睡着了，一下子就过了20年。我究竟发生了什么事？署名瑞普。
Don: Well, Rip, you came to the right place. What happened is that your circadian rhythms got screwed up.
唐：好的，瑞普，你的选对地方了。你身上出现了昼夜节律紊乱。
Yael: Circadian rhythm. That's named after those insects that come out of the ground every seven years isn't it?
雅艾尔：昼夜节律。这个术语来自于那些每七年才爬出地面的昆虫，对吗？
Don: No, no. Those are cicadas. This is circadian. It's from the Latin for "about a day."
唐：不，不。那些昆虫是蝉。英文单词蝉的变体就是circadian，出自拉丁语，意思是“大约一天。”
Yael: I knew that.
雅艾尔：我知道这一点。
Don: Anyway, the brain has an internal clock that affects a lot of bodily functions, such as temperature, when we get hungry, hormone levels, and so forth. Scientists believe this clock also governs when we go to sleep and when we wake up.
唐：总之，大脑内部有生物钟，影响着身体的许多功能。当我们感到饥饿时，荷尔蒙水平持平，诸如此类。科学家们相信这种生物钟也支配着人们睡觉和起床的时间。
Yael:I think I see how this clock works. We usually go to sleep at about the same time every night, and for most of us about eight hours later we wake up.
雅艾尔：我想我明白生物钟是如何工作的。我们每晚通常在一个点睡觉，大多数人睡足8小时后就自然醒来。
Don: Right. It's believed that we fall asleep at about the same time each night because chemical activity in the brain induces sleep. Then for most of us about eight hours later our brain clock switches on chemical activity that wakes us up—assuming the neighbor's barking dog doesn't awaken us first.
唐：对，我们之所以会在每晚同一时间入睡，是因为大脑内部的化学活动会促进睡眠。然后八小时后，大多数人大脑内促进起床的化学活动启动——假设不被邻居家的狗吵醒。
Yael:That's cool. With all this talk about sleep, I think I'm ready for a nap.
雅艾尔：太酷了。讲了那么多关于睡眠的知识，现在我真的想小睡一会儿。
Don: Me too.
唐：我也是。
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