周末补觉真的有用吗？

为了研究周末补觉对健康状况的影响，科学家们做了一个实验。

Researchers took two groups of healthy people and limited their sleep to no more than five hours a night.

研究者们找来了两组身体健康的人作为实验对象，并将他们每晚的睡眠时间限制在5小时以内。

One group had their sleep restricted for the whole study, while the other was able to catch up at the weekend.

其中，一组人的睡眠时间在研究期间一直被限制，而另一组则可以在周末补觉。

They took 36 people, aged 18 to 39, and for two weeks kept them in a laboratory, where their food intake, light exposure and sleep were monitored.

他们选择了年龄从18至39岁不等的36个人，并将他们关在一个实验室内两周。在实验室里，他们的食物摄入量、曝光量以及睡眠情况都被监控。

Participants were divided into three groups:

one was allowed no more than five hours per night over nine nights (sleep-restricted group)

the second was allowed no more than five hours for five days followed by a weekend when they could sleep as much as they liked before returning to two days of restricted sleep (weekend recovery group)

and a third was allowed plenty of time to sleep - nine hours each night for nine nights (control group)

参与者被分为三组：

第一组被限制九个晚上都只能睡不多于五小时（限制睡眠组）

第二组被限制五天只能睡不多于五小时，紧接着的周末他们想睡多久就睡多久，然后再回到限制睡眠的两天（周末恢复组）

第三组可以有充足的睡眠时间——九个晚上都睡九小时（对照组）

Both sleep-restricted groups gained a small amount of weight over the course of the study (slightly more than 2.2lbs or 1kg) and became less sensitive to insulin, according to the study, published in the journal Current Biology.

根据发布在Current Biology这份期刊上的研究，两个被限制睡眠组的参与者在研究期间体重都有所增加（2.2磅，即1公斤），并且他们的胰岛素敏感度也下降了。

Both groups snacked more at night, gained weight, and showed signs of deteriorating metabolic health, compared to the start of the study.

与研究开始时相比，两组实验对象都出现了在晚上吃更多零食，体重增加的情况，还表现出代谢健康恶化的迹象。

Research has shown that too little sleep can increase the risk of a range of health problems, including obesity and type-2 diabetes, in part by boosting the urge to snack at night and by decreasing insulin sensitivity, or the ability of the body to regulate blood sugar.

研究表明，过少的睡眠会使人们遇到一系列健康问题——包括肥胖以及患Ⅱ型糖尿病的风险可能会提高。这一定程度上是因为过少的睡眠会增强人们夜间吃零食的欲望、降低胰岛素敏感度，或削弱身体调节血糖的能力。

For this new study, researchers wanted to find out what happens when people cycle back and forth between a sleep-deprived work week and two days of catch-up.

在这项新的研究中，研究人员想要弄清楚的是：在工作日睡眠不足和周末补觉的循环过程中，到底发生了什么。

Although the numbers may appear small, experts said this was quite a large number of participants for a sleep study of this kind.

尽管参与者的人数看似很少，专家却说，对于这种类型的睡眠研究而言，（36人）已经相当多了。

Weekend lie-ins do not make up for being sleep-deprived during the week, a study suggests.

研究显示，周末补觉并不能补偿人们在工作日缺少的睡眠。

"In the end, we didn't see any benefit in any metabolic outcome in the people who got to sleep in on the weekend," said lead author Chris Depner, an assistant research professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“最后，我们还是没有看到周末补觉对代谢效果有何益处，”本研究的主要作者，科罗拉多大学波德分校综合生理学的助理研究教授Chris Depner说。

While those in the recovery group saw mild improvements at the weekend (including reduced night-time snacking), those benefits went away when the sleep-restricted work week resumed.

虽然恢复组的人在周末有了一些微小的改善（包括减少了的夜间零食摄入），在限制睡眠的工作日继续后这些改善又消失了。

On some health measures, the weekend recovery group had worse outcomes.

在一些健康测量方面，周末恢复组的某些健康指标甚至更差。

Insulin sensitivity declined by 13% in the sleep-restricted group, while in the weekend recovery group it worsened by between 9% and 27%.

在睡眠不足的一组中，胰岛素敏感度降低了13%；而在周末补觉的一组中，胰岛素敏感度下降了9%到27%不等。

One problem was that the people who were given the opportunity to catch up on sleep struggled to do so.

一个问题在于，有机会补觉的人往往也很难做到补充睡眠。

In the end, the recovery group achieved only 66 minutes more sleep on average at the weekend.

最终，周末补觉的一组平均只在周末多睡了66分钟。

Experts not involved in the research said that although the effects on health shown in the study were small, it was possible that over months and years the impact could become large.

没有参与此次研究的专家说，尽管（周末补觉）对健康的影响在研究中显示出来得很小，但在数个月乃至数年之后，影响是有可能变大的。

They said the findings reinforced existing advice that it is important to sleep enough during the week, and ideally keep a regular sleep schedule.

他们说，这些调查结果也为“平时保证充足睡眠，最好养成有规律睡眠习惯”的主张提供了论据。

But if you are unable to keep to a regular sleep and wake time, it does not mean a lie-in is necessarily bad for you.

不过如果你无法坚持有规律地入睡和起床，这未必意味着睡懒觉一定对你有害。

The study focused on how sleep restriction and catching up on rest at the weekend affects metabolic health, rather than, for example, mental health or cognitive ability.

上述研究关注的是平时缺觉、周末补觉对代谢健康的影响，而没有关注其对心理健康、认知水平等的影响。

Malcolm von Schantz, professor of chronobiology at the University of Surrey, added: "Whilst I think we should urge everybody to work towards a regular schedule if they can, I don't think we should tell people who don't have that luxury that they mustn't sleep in during the weekend."

萨里大学时间生物学教授Malcolm von Schantz补充说：“我认为，一方面，我们需要督促每个人尽可能地朝着规律睡眠的方向努力，但也不用禁止那些做不到规律睡眠的人在周末补觉。”

小Q的温馨提示

从今天做起，告别晚睡、早睡早起，和小Q一起培养健康的作息习惯吧！