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If you’re feeling sleepy and need a jolt of energy, there’s something you should try.
如果你感觉困，需要打点儿鸡血，那你可以试试这个。
It’s more effective than drinking coffee or taking a nap. It’s drinking coffee and then taking a nap.
这个方法比喝咖啡或者小憩都管用，那就是喝完咖啡小憩。
it’s called a coffee nap.
又叫“咖啡小憩”。
It might sound kind of crazy because most people realize that caffeine interferes with sleep.
听上去可能有点儿离谱，因为大部分人都觉得咖啡是有碍于睡眠的。
But it takes a little while for the caffeine to affect you.
但咖啡要起作用也需要一点时间。
The caffeine has to go into your small intestine, pass into your bloodstream, and enter your brain, and that takes about 20 minutes.
咖啡因需要到达你的小肠，进入血液然后循环到大脑，这个过程大概需要二十分钟。
If you spend those 20 minutes unconscious, you’re going to wake up feeling pretty great.
所以，如果你用这二十分钟来休息，那你醒来精神一定会很好。
To understand why, it helps to know what’s making you groggy in the first place.
要想明白其中的道理，我们首先要了解一下到底是什么东西让我们东倒西歪昏昏欲睡的。
So there’s a molecule inside your brain called adenosine and it plugs into little receptors inside your brain and makes you feel tired.
人脑内有一种叫做“腺苷”的分子，这种分子和大脑内部的受体相连，就会让人产生疲惫的感觉。
Adenosine is a byproduct of brain activity, so it builds up throughout the day and starts to slow down your neurons.
腺苷是大脑活动的副产物，会随着大脑活动的时间逐渐堆积，逐渐减慢神经活动的速度。
Caffeine chemically looks a whole lot like adenosine.
从化学上来讲，咖啡因就像是大量的腺苷。
And when you ingest caffeine and it enters your brain, it blocks adenosine from fitting into those receptors.
摄入咖啡因后，咖啡因进入大脑，就会组织这些腺苷和受体的连通。
A lot of people have said that this like taking a car and putting a block of wood under the brake pedals.
很多人都说，这就像开车，然后再脚刹下面放一根木头不让脚刹放下去一样。
Caffeine keeps your brain from slowing itself down.
咖啡因能够阻止大脑降低活动速度。
The great thing about coffee naps is that sleep naturally clears out adenosine from the brain.
咖啡小憩的好处在于睡眠能够自然清除大脑中的腺苷。
So the caffeine doesn’t even need to compete with the adenosine to fit into those receptors.
所以，咖啡因都不用为了阻止腺苷和受体相连而和腺苷竞争。
So what’s the evidence that this really works?
那有证据证明这种办法真的管用吗？
There’s not a huge body of work but there are some studies.
虽然还没有大量相关研究，但也不是完全没有。
When people took a 15-minute coffee nap, they went on to commit fewer errors in a driving simulator than when they only drank coffee or only took a nap.
试验表明，受试者在长达15分钟的咖啡小憩之后，在模拟驾驶时出错的几率比只喝咖啡或者只小睡都要少。
As the test subjects were doing this really boring hour-long drive simulation,
在受试者做这些长达一小时的枯燥模拟驾驶时，
they were asked every 3 minutes to report their sleepiness level.
他们还要每三分钟汇报一次他们的困倦程度。
And the coffee nap group was consistently more alert.
试验表明，咖啡小憩的一组持续表现地更警觉。
Meanwhile a Japanese study found that people who took a caffeine nap performed a lot better on a series of memory tests.
此外，一项日本研究也发现，咖啡小憩的人群在记忆测试中的表现也比他受试者好很多。
The challenge of the coffee nap is to time it just right.
咖啡小憩的困难在于时间的把握。
You want to drink it quickly, so it maybe you could do espresso shots or iced coffee if that makes it easier.
你必须将咖啡快速喝下，所以，你可以喝一杯意式浓缩咖啡或者更简便的冰咖啡。
And then set an alarm before you fall asleep to wake up before 20 minutes
然后在入睡之前设好闹钟，以便你能够在20分钟之内醒来，
because if you nap too long you’re much more likely to enter deeper stages of sleep,
因为如果你睡太久，那你很可能会进入深度睡眠，
and you’ll have what scientists call sleep inertia, which is basically grogginess.
产生科学家所谓的“睡后迟钝”感，说白了就是觉得昏昏沉沉的。
If you have trouble falling asleep, the studies found that you can still benefit from the coffee nap.
研究还发现，如果你觉得入睡很困难，咖啡小憩也还是可以帮你振奋精神。
Even just drinking the caffeine and getting a few minutes of restful half-sleep,
即便是喝完咖啡迷迷糊糊地趴几分钟，
is going to make you feel more alert when you do get up 20 minutes later.
二十分钟后醒来你还是会觉得更精神。
