1
Cece，消防人+經濟學人粉絲
1.重點單詞
melatonin – 褪黑激素
jet lag – 時差反應
pineal gland – 松果體
synchronised – 同步的
disrupted – 被打亂的
diverge – 偏離
detrimental – 有害的
supplements – 補充劑
pooled – 彙集的
randomised – 隨機的
biological clock – 生物鐘
sleep disorders – 睡眠障礙
day-night cycle – 晝夜週期
controlled trials – 對照試驗
sleep disruption – 睡眠中斷
wake-sleep cycle – 睡眠–覺醒週期
drop into – 順便去
fall asleep – 入睡
catch up – 趕上
mess with – 干擾
speed up – 加快
slow down – 減緩
褪黑素被譽為"黑暗荷爾蒙"，在日落後由大腦松果體釋放，幫助人們入睡。時差會導致褪黑素分泌紊亂，因此褪黑素補充劑成為熱門選擇。研究表明，褪黑素對緩解時差確實有效，尤其是在東向飛行後。然而，它更擅長加速而非減緩生物鐘。西向飛行者可以透過調整作息、曬太陽和運動來適應。褪黑素雖有幫助，但並非萬能良藥，合理使用才能發揮最佳效果。
問題1：褪黑素被稱為什麼荷爾蒙？
問題2：褪黑素對哪個方向的飛行更有效？
問題3：除了褪黑素，還有什麼方法可以緩解時差？
2
英文部分選自經濟學人20250111期科技板塊
科技 | 知情選擇
褪黑素對倒時差管用嗎？
管用，但得看你去哪
Drop into any pharmacy in America and you will find jars of melatonin promising to relieve you of dreaded jet lag. There are tablets, pink gummies, potent-looking capsules—whatever appeals. But all you want to know is: does it work?
走進美國的任何一家藥店, 你都會看到瓶瓶罐罐的褪黑素，宣傳可以緩解時差帶來的不適。它們形態各異，有藥片，有粉色軟糖，還有看上去藥效很強的膠囊，任君選擇。但是你只想知道一點：它管用嗎？
Melatonin is known as the “darkness hormone”. When the sun goes down, it is released by the pineal gland in the brain. Production peaks in the middle of the night before slowly falling as the morning light returns. Although driven by the biological clock, rather than darkness itself, the emergence and disappearance of light helps regulate the clock each day and keeps melatonin production synchronised to the day-night cycle. The night-time increase in melatonin puts people into a pleasant state that makes it easier for them to fall asleep. And when people are given melatonin during the day, they get sleepy then, too.
褪黑素被稱為“黑暗荷爾蒙”。太陽下山時，大腦的松果腺會釋放褪黑素。褪黑素的分泌在午夜達到峰值，然後隨著晨光的到來逐漸下降。雖說褪黑素分泌由生物鐘驅動，而不是由黑暗本身決定，但是光的出現和消失有助於調控生物鐘的日常運轉，保持褪黑素的釋放與晝夜迴圈同步。夜間褪黑素分泌增加會令人進入一種愉悅的狀態，從而更容易入睡。並且，人們在白天攝入褪黑素時，同樣會感到睏倦。
Disrupted melatonin production can lead to sleep disorders. People who are blind, for example, do not have their biological clocks set by the changing light. Because the natural clock runs a little slower than the 24-hour cycle, their melatonin production can diverge from the external day-night cycle. Drifting melatonin peaks eventually make them sleep during the day, even against their best intentions.
褪黑素的分泌紊亂可能會導致睡眠障礙。例如，盲人無法透過光線變化來調節生物鐘。由於人體自然生物鐘略慢於24小時週期，他們的褪黑素分泌會逐漸偏離外部的晝夜週期。隨著褪黑素分泌峰值的漂移，他們最終可能在白天睡著，即使他們竭力保持清醒，仍難以避免在白天打盹的情況。
Jet lag, similarly, can cause melatonin disruptions. One reason is that sleep is interrupted by the bright lights of the plane cabin, but the much more detrimental effect comes from arriving at a destination with a day-night cycle out of sync with your biological clock. The clock, and the melatonin, can take days to catch up.
同樣，時差反應也會導致褪黑素紊亂。其中一個原因是機艙內的亮光干擾了睡眠，但目的地晝夜週期與生物鐘的不同步會帶來更嚴重的影響。生物鐘和褪黑素分泌需要幾天的時間才能調整好。
Managing jet lag with melatonin supplements, therefore, has become popular. But understanding whether or not they work is hard. Experiments that mess with people’s biological clocks in a controlled way, and which also recreate real-life scenarios, are not easy to do. Many studies, for instance, have kept people from sleep by exposing them to bright lights all night. But that is not only a little cruel, it is not an ideal way to model sleep disruption.
因此，用褪黑素補充劑來緩解時差反應已經成為常見做法。但要弄清這種做法是否有效卻很難。在受控條件下干擾人的生物鐘，同時還原真實生活場景，這樣的實驗並不容易實現。例如，許多研究讓被試整夜暴露於強光下來阻止他們入睡，不僅有點殘忍，也並不是模擬睡眠紊亂的理想方法。
Instead, scientists have given melatonin to people who were travelling anyway, such as air cabin staff, soldiers and scientists travelling to conferences. In those cases, the supplements do seem to work. A landmark paper that pooled the results of five randomised controlled trials in 2002 found that people given melatonin rate their jet-lag experience as half as bad as those who are given a placebo, on a scale from zero to 100.
相反，科學家選擇給本來就有出行需求的人服用褪黑素，比如航空機組人員、士兵和參加會議的科學家。在這些情況下，褪黑素補充劑似乎確實有效。2002年，一篇具有里程碑意義的論文彙總了五項隨機對照試驗的結果。研究發現，在要求被試以0到100評分的時差不適感自評中，服用褪黑素組的得分僅為安慰劑組的一半。
“Melatonin is quite effective if you have to speed up your clock,” says Derk-Jan Dijk, director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre. “It’s not good at slowing down your clock.” That means taking melatonin may be more useful after eastward flights, when you have to go to bed sooner than your body wants to, than after westward flights, when you have to stay up. Fortunately for those with westward travel plans, there are other things you can do to help your biological clock adjust—gradually shifting the wake-sleep cycle in the days before the flight, for example, and getting natural sunlight and exercise during daytime hours at the destination, which helps adjust melatonin production.
薩里大學睡眠研究中心主任德克–揚・戴克（Derk-Jan Dijk）表示：“如果你要調快生物鐘，褪黑素是相當有效的，但對調慢生物鐘不太見效。”也就是說，在向東飛行後服用褪黑素可能比在向西飛行後服用褪黑素更有用。因為在向東飛行後，你要在睏意來臨前上床睡覺，而在向西飛行後，你要熬夜。好在對於計劃向西旅行的人來說，還有其他方法可以用於調整生物鐘。例如，在飛行前幾天逐漸調整作息，在到達目的地後，多在白天曬曬太陽，做做運動，這都有助於調節褪黑激素的分泌。
雪迪，開眼看世界
Lee，愛騎行的婦女之友+Timberland粉
3
願景
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獨立思考 | 國際視野 | 英文學習
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