坐船有助於改善睡眠?
Why do babies fall asleep when they're rocked? All parents know it works, and have their own special way of moving with an irritable sleepy baby - in a sling, up and down, side to side, in the car. Recent research on rocking doesn't answer the baby question, but shines a light on the salutary effect it can have on grown-ups.
爲什麼搖着搖着，寶寶就睡着了？父母都知道這招管用，也有一套獨特的方式搖晃焦躁睏倦的寶寶--用背巾揹着，上下搖晃、從一邊晃到另一半，在車上。近來關於搖晃的研究並沒有解決寶寶的問題，但可能對成年人帶來有益影響。
Anyone who's experienced sleeping on a boat will wax lyrical about it - the special soothing sensation of being rocked to sleep by gently lapping water. There's even a company that specializes in offering floating accommodations. And novelists from Graham Greene to Paul Theroux have encapsulated the romance of the night train - boarding at bedtime, swaying in your berth with a clickety-clack lullaby, waking refreshed and ready to explore the completely different place you are now in. There is obviously something to be said for moving gently while sleeping.
任何在船上睡過覺的人都會對其熱情吹捧--船兒輕輕拍打水面帶來一種舒緩的入睡感。甚至有公司專門提供浮動住宿服務。格雷厄姆·格林（Graham Greene）和保羅·塞魯克斯（Paul Theroux）等小說家們已將夜間列車的浪漫故事融入了搖搖晃晃的搖籃曲--睡前登船、躺在臥鋪上搖晃，第二天醒來精神煥發，準備探索這一截然不同的所處地。顯然，睡覺時的輕微晃動是有益的。
Some research was undertaken in 2011 which looked at how napping was improved by rocking to and fro, which inspired a group of scientists from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Geneva in Switzerland to carry out this new research on a full night's shut-eye.
2011年開展了一些研究：來回晃動是如何改善睡眠的？這也激發了瑞士日內瓦大學神經科學系的科學家們開展了這項新的研究：一夜安睡。
Eighteen healthy young volunteers spent two nights sleeping in the lab and playing memory games with pairs of words, while researchers tracked their brain activity with an electroencephalogram. One of the nights was spent in a traditional bed, while the second was spent gently rocking in a bed the scientists had rigged up. The special bed swayed approximately four inches each way over the period of eight seconds.
18名健康的年輕志願者在實驗室睡了2晚，然後玩字詞對記憶遊戲，同時研究員用腦電圖跟蹤他們的大腦活動。其中一個晚上，這些志願者睡的是普通大牀，而第二晚則是在科學家操縱的輕微晃動的牀上度過的。這一特殊定製的牀大約在8秒的時間段內向一邊搖晃4英寸。
The results show that even adults benefit from being rocked while they sleep. The subjects took an average of seven minutes' less time to fall asleep in the rocking bed than they did in the steady bed, they spent more time in deep non-REM sleep, and they woke less often.
結果表明，即使是成年人也能在搖晃中睡個好覺。受試者在搖晃牀上入睡的時間比在平穩牀上入睡的時間平均少7分鐘，他們深度非快速眼動睡眠（deep non-REM sleep）的時間更久，醒來的頻次也更少。
After rocking through the night, they also had a better recall of the word pairs they had learned the night before, suggesting that better sleep improves memory.
一夜搖晃之後，他們能更好的回憶前一晚學到的字詞，表明：睡眠改善可以提高記憶力。
