只有在睡前远离手机，你才能获得良好的睡眠

Something about keeping those last 30 minutes tech-free, it seems, is crucial to a restful slumber.

只有在睡前30分钟时间里不接触手机等科技产品，才能保证睡眠质量。

There are several factors that could explain this. A now well-told caution is that the blue light emitted from our screens inhibits our melatonin levels – a chemical that effectively tells us that it’s time to nod off. It could also be possible that social media use increases a person’s anxiety as the day goes on, making it hard to switch off when we finally go to bed. “Then thoughts and feelings come back to haunt us as we try go to sleep,” says Primack. Or a more obvious reason might be that social media is deeply alluring and simply reduces the time we have for sleep.

对于这一现象有很多解释。首先，手机屏幕发出的蓝色光线会抑制褪黑激素水平，褪黑激素是一种提醒我们入睡的物质。另外，使用社交媒体也会增加人的焦虑感，使我们很难结束这一天的活动去上床睡觉。"在我们试图入眠时，各种念头和情绪会萦绕心头，"普利马克说。另一个显而易见的解释在于，社交媒体具有很大诱惑力，会直接缩短我们的睡眠时间。

We know that physical activity helps people sleep better. More screen time is also likely to reduce time spent for physical activity, a link that has been established by research. “It induces more sedentary behaviour during the day. If you have a smart phone in your hand, you won’t be swinging your arms as quickly or moving your legs. If you add that up over six months, you may have a new generation who are not moving as much each day,” says Aric Sigman, an independent lecturer in child health education.

我们知道，体育运动会有助于睡眠。而研究表明，玩手机会占用运动时间。"手机会增加一天中的非运动时间。如果你手里拿着一台智能手机，你就不会去做运动。这种情况持续6个月以上，你就会发现人人的运动时间都减少了，"独立儿童健康教育培训师埃里克·西格曼(Aric Sigman)表示。

If social media use is exacerbating anxiety and depression, it could then, in turn, impact sleep. If you lay in bed awake comparing yourself to other people’s posts ranging from #feelingblessed, #myperfectlife to air-brushed holiday snaps, you might well believe that your life is somewhat drab in comparison, which could make you feel worse and keep you up.

如果使用社交媒体会使焦虑症和抑郁症恶化，它也会影响睡眠。如果你躺在床上看着别人在朋友圈里花样炫富晒美照，你就很可能会感到自己的生活单调乏味，由此产生的压抑心理则会导致睡眠出现问题。

And so it seems there is a merry-go-round of interrelated issues at play. Social media is linked to increased depression, anxiety and sleep deprivation. And a lack of sleep can both worsen mental health and be a result of metal health issues.

然后，过往生活中的种种不快会像旋转木马一样在你脑海中闪回。社交媒体会导致抑郁、焦虑和睡眠障碍高发，缺乏睡眠则会进一步损害精神健康，而精神疾病又会反过来影响睡眠。

A lack of sleep has other side-effects: it has been linked to an increased risk of heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, poor academic performance, slower reaction times when driving, risky behaviour, increased substance use… the list goes on.

缺乏睡眠还有其他副作用。据了解，缺乏睡眠可能导致心脏病、糖尿病、肥胖、学习成绩不良、驾驶反应速度减慢、冒险行为、滥用药物等等问题。

What’s worse is that when it comes to sleep deprivation, it’s usually young people who are most adversely affected. That’s because adolescence is a time of important biological and social changes that are critical to development.

更糟的是，受到睡眠不足影响的大多是年轻人。这是由于，青春期伴随着重要的生理和社会状况变化，而这些变化对发育至关重要。

Adolescents also take longer to build up what’s called a “sleep drive” – which is the drive that helps you to fall asleep the longer you have been awake, explains Jessica Levenson, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This contributes to teens in particular having a harder time falling asleep at night, she says.

匹兹堡大学医学院的杰西卡·列文森表示，青少年需要更长时间才能产生"睡眠冲动"——一种使你困倦，促使你进入睡眠的机制。这也是青少年难以入眠的原因之一。

Levenson now worries that social media use, and the literature and research around it, is growing and changing so quickly, that it is difficult to keep up. “It’s our responsibility to explore the impacts, good or bad,” she says. “We are just starting to cover the impact of social media use. Teachers, parents and paediatricians need to be asking teens: how often? When? How do they feel when using it?”

让列文森担忧不已的是，社交媒体，以及与之相关的文章和研究都在不断增长并迅速变化，很难跟上这种增长和变化的步伐。"我们有责任去研究这种影响，无论是好是坏，"她说。"人们试图掩盖社交媒体的影响。教师、父母和儿科医生需要监督询问青少年：你多久玩一次手机?什么时候玩手机?玩手机时感觉如何?"

To combat any downsides of social media use, it’s clear that moderation is key. Sigman says we should all ring-fence particular times throughout the day in which we can distance ourselves from our screens, and do the same for children. Parents, he argues, need to have set places in their homes where devices can or cannot be used “so it’s not a fluid situation where social media is bleeding into every part of your life without any buffer zones”. This is especially important as children have not yet developed adequate levels of impulse control to know when is enough, he explains.

为了对抗社交媒体的不良影响，需要坚持适度使用的原则。西格曼说，我们需要在一天的特定时间段远离手机，这一点对儿童同样重要。他说，父母应当在家里划定可以用手机，不能用手机的位置，"从而避免在没有缓冲的情况下，社交媒体完全渗入你生活的每个角落"。他说，对于缺乏控制能力的儿童，这一点尤为重要。

Primack agrees. He is not calling for people to stop using social media, but to consider how much ­– and exactly when in the day – they do so. “The bottom line is, when there is all of this power trying to keep us glued to these sites, that’s going be hard for us to compete with,” he says. He hopes that strong research and engagement management advice, particularly when it comes to no-go social media times, will even the playing field.

普利马克同意这一主张。他并没有呼吁人们完全放弃使用社交媒体，而是要控制使用总时间以及具体使用时间段。"这些网站对我们产生了巨大的吸引力，这种吸引力很难抵御，"他说。他希望针对青少年加强研究和管理，让他们在睡前时间段不要使用社交媒体。

As for adults, if you were on your phone before bed last night, and you feel a bit groggy today, it may be in your control to fix it. You may well sleep better if you put your phone away.

对于成人，要是昨天晚上睡前你手里拿着手机，并且今天感到精神倦怠的话，你就应当发挥自控力努力解决。只有在睡前远离手机，你才能获得良好的睡眠。