閱讀暖身
一天究竟睡多久才夠呢？常聽到「一天至少要睡足六小時」，但研究發現長期下來，每天睡六小時的人，表現和連續熬夜兩天的人差不多。同時，我們睡得比自己想像得少…進入本文前，請先想想如何表達這些單字。
(A) 至關重要
(B) 受試者
(C) 高估 We spend 1/3 of our entire life sleeping. Good sleep quality is (A) vital to our health and productivity. But come on, (1) haven’t we heard it all before. The point is how many hours of sleep leads to the highest performance and quality of life? Let's see what the study has to say.
一生中有三分之一的時間都在睡覺，好的睡眠品質對健康和生產力非常關鍵。但這不是一個老生常談的話題嗎？重點在，要有優異表現和優質生活，到底要睡多久？我們看看研究怎麼說。 The results from one study show that (B) subjects who were allowed to sleep eight hours per night had the highest performance on average. Subjects who slept only four hours a night did worse each day. The group who got six hours of sleep seemed to (2) hang in there, until around day 10 of the study. After they slept six hours per day, for two weeks, they performed as poorly as those who were forced to keep their eyes open for two days straight.
研究顯示，每天睡八個小時平均表現最好。每天只睡四個小時的受試者每天的表現會每況愈下。只睡六個小時的受試者一開始似乎撐得住，但大概到了實驗第十天就不行了。連續兩周後，每天睡六個小時的受試者，表現和整整兩天不睡的受試者一樣差。 The thing is that we have no idea how much time we actually spend in bed. A sleep study published in Epidemiology, shows people generally (C) overestimate their sleep by around 0.8 hours. In fact, you don't sleep as much as you think!
問題是我們也不知道自己到底睡了多久。一份在《流行病學》期刊上所發表的睡眠研究顯示，人通常會高估自己的睡眠約 0.8個小時。事實上你根本睡得比想像中還少。 Getting enough sleep is (3) easier said than done, but the following experts' advice probably gives us some food for thought: Have a consistent bedtime; don't look at electronic screens at least 30 minutes before bed, drink less, and get enough exercise.
要睡飽可說是知易行難，但是以下專家建議或許是一個好的開始：固定時間就寢、就寢前至少半小時前不要看電子產品、不飲酒過量，以及充足的運動。 口語詞彙:
1. We've heard it all before. 老生常談
原文意思乍看是「我們以前都聽過了」，衍伸為對他人的言論不以為意或不相信。
A. I promise I'll get up early tomorrow. 我保證明天一定會早起。
B. Yawn, we've heard it all before. 拜託！聽你說過一百遍了。 2. Hang in there. 撐得住
就是字面上意思，代表你可以hold得住場面或任何事情。
Don't worry. I am not drunk. I can still hang in there.
不用擔心，我沒醉，還撐得住。 3. Easier said than done 知易行難
這是一句很常見的俗諺，原文意思是說的比做的簡單，衍伸為中文成語「知易行難」或「想太多了」
A: I am going to read a book a week.
我要每個禮拜讀一本書
B: Easier said than done. Why don’t you start with a book a month?
你想得太簡單了。何不從一個月讀一本開始？ | 
