Lesson 19 The stuff of dreams-英语听力

[00:01.49]Lesson 19
第19节 [00:03.88]The stuff of dreams
话说梦的本质 [00:12.89]What is going on when a person experiences rapid eye-movements during sleep?
当一个人在睡眠中经历快速眼球活动时会发生什么？ [00:21.48]It is fairly clear that the sleeping period must have some function, and because there is so much of it the function would seem to be important.
很清楚，睡眠必然具有某种作用。睡眠占去那么多时间，所以其作用似乎还是很重要 [00:32.48]Speculations about its nature have been going on for literally thousands of years,
人们对睡眠作用的种种猜测，确实有数千年之久 [00:38.80]and one odd finding that makes the problem puzzling is that it looks very much as if sleeping is not simply a matter of giving the body a rest.
一项使人对这个问题感到困惑的奇怪的发现是，睡眠在很大程度似乎并不仅仅是为了使身体得到休息 [00:48.75]'Rest', in terms of muscle relaxation and so on, can be achieved by a brief period lying, or even sitting down.
“休息”，从使肌肉得到放松等方面来看，只要稍微躺一躺，甚至坐一坐就能达到 [00:58.93]The body's tissues are self-repairing and self-restoring to a degree, and function best when more or less continuously active.
人体组织在一定程度上有自我修补和自我恢复的能力，有张有弛地连续活动时，其功能最佳 [01:09.16]In fact a basic amount of movement occurs during sleep which is specifically concerned with preventing muscle inactivity.
事实上，睡眠状态下仍有着基本的活动量，以防止肌肉活动停止 [01:19.58]If it is not a question of resting the body, then perhaps it is the brain that needs resting?
如果睡眠的功能不是在于使身体得到休息，那么也许是让大脑得以休息 [01:26.60]This might be a plausible hypothesis were it not for two factors.
若不是下面两点，这种假设似乎是有道理的 [01:31.71]First the electroencephalograph (which is simply a device for recording the electrical activity of the brain by attaching electrodes to the scalp)
第一点，脑电图记录仪（不过是一种把电极接到头皮上记录脑电活动的仪器） [01:42.12]shows that while there is a change in the pattern of activity during sleep, there is no evidence that the total amount of activity is any less.
显示人在睡眠时大脑活动的方式有变化，但没有迹象表明，其活动总量有任何减少 [01:52.77]The second factor is more interesting and more fundamental.
第二点更有意思，也更重要 [01:57.24]Some years ago an American psychiatrist named William Dement published experiments dealing with the recording of eye-movements during sleep.
前些年，美国一位精神病学者发表了一篇报告，报告中记录了眼球在睡眠时的活动情况 [02:08.31]He showed that the average individual's sleep cycle is punctuated with peculiar bursts of eye-movements, some drifting and slow, others jerky and rapid.
他指出，平常人的睡眠周期中不时伴有一阵阵奇怪的眼球活动，这些活动有的飘忽而缓慢，有的急剧而快速 [02:20.49]People woken during these periods of eye-movements generally reported that they had been dreaming.
在眼球活动期间被叫醒的人都说自己在做梦 [02:27.40]When woken at other times they reported no dreams.
在其他期间叫醒他们，则说没有做梦 [02:31.86]If one group of people were disturbed from their eye-movement sleep for several nights on end,
如果有两组人，一组人连续几夜在眼球活动时被叫醒 [02:37.64]and another group were disturbed for an equal period of time but when they were not exhibiting eye-movements,
另一组人也是连续几夜被叫醒，但是在眼球没活动时被叫醒的 [02:44.19]the first group began to show some personality disorders while the others seemed more or less unaffected.
结果，第一组人开始出现性格失常，而第二组人似乎没受什么影响 [02:51.60]The implications of all this were that it was not the disturbance of sleep that mattered, but the disturbance of dreaming.
这一切暗示我们：睡眠受到干扰没关系，而做梦受到干扰是有问题的