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Study after study has shown that napping is awesome—even for young, healthy adults who get enough sleep at night.
一项又一项研究表明，即使是对那些晚上睡眠充足的年轻健康成年人来说，午睡也是一件很棒的事。
On average, people feel better after catching a few Zs, and their brains work better too.
一般来说，人们在午睡片刻后会感觉更好，他们的大脑也会工作得更好。
Which might make you wonder: should everyone be napping? Well, not necessarily.
这就不禁让人联想：每个人都应该午睡么？并不是。
The answer is more complicated than you might think. Lots of people swear by naps.
答案可能比你想的更复杂。很多人都喜欢午睡。
In the US, for example, about half of adults nap in a given week.
例如，在美国，大约有一半的成年人会在一周内午睡。
And there's been a ton of research on napping which suggests the benefits are impressive.
而且很多关于午睡的研究表明午睡好处多多。
Post-nap, people do better on tests that measure math skills, logic, reaction time, memory, mood… all kinds of things, really.
午睡后，人们在数学、逻辑、反应时间、记忆力、情绪等各种测试中表现更好。
And on some tests, a nap is even better than caffeine! But such results are a bit biased,
在一些测试中，午睡甚至比咖啡因效果更好！但是这样的结果有点偏颇，
because a lot of this work has been done in people who are either sleep deprived or habitual nappers.
因为很多类似的测试中的受试者都是那些睡眠被剥夺或有午睡习惯的人。
And studies suggest the gains for people who nap regularly are so great that even if a study includes non-nappers,
研究表明经常午睡的人收获的益处非常多，以至于即便是一项研究中包含不午睡的人，
the nappers' benefits can skew the results of the whole group!
午睡者所获得的好处也可能会影响整个小组的结果！
Now, it makes sense that researchers have relied so heavily on nappers and people who are downright exhausted.
现在，研究人员如此信赖午睡者和极度疲惫的人是有道理的。
It's not exactly easy to fall asleep in the middle of the day in a weird lab bedroom with wires attached to you.
在一个有电线连接的奇怪实验室卧室里，你很难在中午睡着。
But, it also means we're only now starting to figure out who benefits from napping and why.
但这也意味着我们现在才开始弄清楚谁从午睡中受益以及为什么受益。
And while naps are great on average, not everyone benefits equally.
虽然一般来说午睡很好，但并不是每个人都能从中获得相等的益处。
When researchers have taken pains to look at a more representative sample,
当研究人员煞费苦心的研究更具代表性的样本时，
they've been able to tease out some differences between people who nap regularly and those who don't.
他们可以梳理出经常午睡和不经常午睡的人之间的一些区别。
Non-nappers typically don't get a cognitive boost from napping; lots of times, they just wake up feeling groggy.
没有午睡习惯的人通常不会从午睡中得到认知上的提升；很多时候，他们只是醒来时感觉昏昏沉沉。
And it may be because there are differences in what happens in their brains when they nap.
这或许是因为他们在午睡时大脑所发生的变化是不同的。
Non-nappers spend more time in deeper sleep, which could make it harder for them to wake up.
不午睡的人会花更长时间在深度睡眠中，这会让他们更加难以醒来。
They also have fewer brain-wave signatures of memory consolidation—when new information moves into long-term storage—
他们也很少有记忆巩固的脑电波信号—当新信息进入长期存储时—
which could explain why they don't perform better on memory tests post-nap.
这也解释了为什么他们在午睡后进行的记忆测试中没有表现得更好。
But what if non-nappers just need more practice napping? Researchers looked into that question for a study published in 2018.
但如果不午睡的人只是需要更多的午睡练习呢？研究人员在2018年发表的一项研究中调查了这一问题。
They put non-habitual nappers on a training regimen to try to build their napping skills.
他们对不午睡者进行训练，以建立他们的午睡技能。
Basically, participants took a 20-minute nap, 3 times a week. And, after 4 weeks... it made zero difference.
参与者基本上每周三次，每次睡20分钟。4周后，结果没有任何区别。
They still had the same patterns of brainwaves during a nap, they woke up feeling just as groggy, and they did no better on cognitive tests.
他们午睡期间的脑波模式还是一样的，他们醒来时还是昏昏沉沉的，并且他们在认知测试中也没有表现更好。
That could be because nap aversion is hard-wired.
这可能是因为不喜欢午睡是天生的。
There's some evidence that it may come down to the gene variations that you're born with and your childhood napping habits.
有一些证据表明这可能归结于你与生俱来的基因变异和你童年的午睡习惯。
Non-nappers could just be people who have learned through experience that napping doesn't work for them.
不午睡的人可能只是那些通过经验知道午睡对他们不起作用的人。
Or, it could be that the participants simply didn't train long or hard enough.
或者这可能是由于对参与者训练不够或不够严格。
But even if everyone could learn to nap like the pros, there are a few other caveats to consider before we say they should.
但即使每个人都能学会午睡，但在我们说大家都应该午睡之前，还有一些其他的注意事项需要考虑。
For shift workers and people with sleep disorders or atypical sleep schedules, things get even more complicated.
对于轮班工作者和睡眠障碍患者或睡眠不规律的人，事情甚至更加复杂。
And even though older adults are more likely to take naps than younger folks,
尽管老年人比年轻人更喜欢午睡，
napping in seniors is associated with higher rates of some pretty nasty health outcomes.
但老年人午睡与一些相当糟糕的健康问题的高发病率有关。
There's no direct evidence that napping is causing these problems.
没有直接证据表明午睡会导致这些问题。
But we need more information about this connection before we can say napping is great for this group.
但是我们需要更多关于这种联系的信息，才能说午睡对这个群体有好处。
Still, if you are a younger, healthy adult who enjoys a good siesta, you'll probably get a lot out of napping regularly.
如果你是喜欢午睡的年轻人，可能会从经常的午睡中获益。
And there's plenty of science that can help you optimize your routine.
有很多科学可以帮助你优化你的睡眠安排。
Research says the sweet spot for nap length is somewhere around 10 to 30 minutes. Anything shorter is not restful.
研究表明小睡时间最好在10到30分钟左右。时间短会休息不好。
Much longer than that, and you'll wake up groggy. And the best time of day to nap seems to be sometime in the 2 to 5 PM window.
超过这个时间，就会昏昏沉沉。一天午休最佳时间段是在下午2点到5点。
This could be because circadian rhythms naturally dip in the afternoon — hence that mid-afternoon lull.
这可能是因为昼夜节律在下午会自然下降，因此下午三点左右最好。
And that may make it easier to fall asleep, which is definitely an important factor in napping success.
这会让入睡更加容易，这绝对是小睡成功的重要因素。
But there's also evidence that late-day naps interfere with nighttime sleep,
但也有证据表明午睡时间晚会干扰夜间睡眠，
so it may just be that 2 to 5 is early enough to avoid that.
所以2点到5点这个时间足以避免这种情况了。
So even if you usually avoid naps, you could try following these best practices and see if napping does anything for you.
所以，即使你通常不午睡，你也可以尝试这些最佳做法，看看午睡是否对你有帮助。
But if it doesn't work out, you don't need to feel bad. Your brain might just work a little differently.
但如果对你没用，你也不必难过。你的大脑工作方式可能会有点不同。
Thanks to Rox Manzi for asking, and to all our other patrons who voted for this question in our poll.
感谢Rox Manzi的提问，感谢所有为这个问题投票的赞助人。
You can find out more about joining our Patreon community at Patreon.com/SciShow.
登录Patreon.com/SciShow了解如何加入我们的社区。
And one more quick tip: you might get the most benefits of all if you combine your nap with caffeine.
还有一个小窍门：如果你把午睡和咖啡因结合起来，你可能会得到最大的好处。
We have a whole episode that explains why and how to pull it off— so why not watch that one next!
我们有一集专门解释为什么以及如何实现它—所以为什么不看看呢！
