A good night’s sleep can make us more empathetic, more creative, better parents and better partners, according to Aric Prather, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco who treats insomnia and is the author of the new book “The Sleep Prescription.” Sleep can help us manage stress; it can make us competent and capable and better able to take on the day. But Dr. Prather says we too often view sleep as an afterthought — until we find ourselves frozen in the middle of the night, our thoughts racing, fumbling for rest or relief.

研究失眠的加州大學舊金山分校心理學家阿瑞克·普拉瑟近日出版新書《睡眠處方》，根據他的理論，一晚好眠可以讓人更具同理心和創造力，成為更好的家長和伴侶。睡眠有助於壓力管理：使人有餘力、有能力且更好地開始新的一天。但普拉瑟表示，我們往往不重視睡眠——直到發現自己在半夜時分目光獃滯，思維跳躍，難以休息或放鬆。

Some people might reach for a supplement or sleep aid. A 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found that one in eight adults with trouble sleeping reported using sleep aids. But Dr. Prather said there are simple steps we can take throughout the day and night to get better rest, which he outlines in the book, out Nov. 1 from Penguin Life. “It’s not something you do,” he added. “It’s something that comes to you.”

有人可能因此服用補充劑或助眠藥。美國疾控中心2013年的一項調查發現，八分之一有睡眠障礙的成年人報告稱使用過助眠藥物。但普拉瑟表示，我們可以在一天的時間裡用一些更簡單的辦法來獲得更好的休息，他在這本11月1日由企鵝生活出版的書中概述了這些辦法。「這不是要你去做什麼，」他還補充道。「而是一些順其自然的行為。」

Here are some of his science-backed tips for sounder sleep.

以下是他的一些有科學依據的睡眠建議。

Carve out time for “scheduled worry.”

“No one ever says, ‘I was awake in the middle of the night, and I was only thinking of good things,’” Dr. Prather said. Throughout the day, we might be too busy to linger on our thoughts, but at night, when we try to let our brains pause without distractions, “our thoughts can get very, very loud,” Dr. Prather wrote.

「從來沒有人說，『我半夜睡不著，腦子裡想的全是些好事』，」普拉瑟表示。白天我們可能因忙碌而無暇顧及各種思緒，但到了晚上，當我們努力讓大腦活動停下來不受干擾時，「我們的思緒可能會變得非常非常活躍，」普拉瑟寫道。

To beat back nightime rumination and anxiety, Dr. Prather recommended in an interview devoting part of your day to worry. Block out a 10 to 20 minutes to write down what you’re anxious about, or just think about it, without searching for a solution. If you do that consistently, he said, your worries won’t seep into the night — and if they do, you can remind yourself that you have a dedicated time to address them the next day.

為了抑制夜間沉思和焦慮，普拉瑟在一次採訪中建議，把一天的部分時間花在擔憂上。抽出10到20分鐘時間，寫下讓你焦慮的事情，或者只是想一想，但不用尋找解決方案。他說，如果堅持這樣做，你的擔憂就不會影響夜晚的休息——就算焦慮找上門來，你還可以提醒自己第二天還有專門的時間來處理。

If you regularly reach for coffee to get you through an afternoon slump, you’ll still have caffeine in your system by bedtime, said Dr. Prather.

普拉瑟表示，如果經常靠喝咖啡撐過下午的倦意，那等到晚上睡覺前你的身體裡仍會含有咖啡因。

Instead, he recommends getting an energy boost elsewhere. You can go for a brisk walk in the afternoon, or spend five to 10 minutes taking a break from work and engaging your brain in a simple task — pull weeds in the garden, reorganize a bookshelf, turn on some music and really focus on a song. Focusing on a non-work task can energize our brains, Dr. Prather said, jolting us out of our routine. Or, for a more extreme option, stick your head in the freezer. That brief shock of cold activates your arousal system, Dr. Prather said, like jumper cables on a car battery to wake you up — no coffee run needed.

相反，他建議用其他辦法來刺激精神。可以在下午進行簡短散步，或是從工作中抽出五到10分鐘時間，讓大腦做一件簡單的事——給花園除草、整理書架、聽聽音樂並真正專注於聽一首歌曲。普拉瑟說，專注於一項非工作任務可以給大腦充能，讓我們從日常節奏中掙脫出來。或者，一個更極端的選擇，就是把頭伸進冰箱。普拉瑟說，這種短暫的寒冷刺激會激活你的覺醒系統，就像連接汽車電池的充電電線一樣，讓你在不需要喝咖啡的情況下也能清醒過來。

Your computer, a heap of laundry, the pile of sticky notes reminding you of all of your unfinished tasks — clear those all out of the room where you sleep. If that’s not possible, at least move them so you can’t see them from your bed, Dr. Prather advises. You want your sleeping area to calm you down, not remind you of everything you need to get done.

把電腦、要洗的衣服、提醒所有未完成工作的便利貼都從你睡覺的房間清理出去。普拉瑟建議，如果不能，至少將它們移開，這樣你在床上就看不到它們了。睡眠區應是能讓人平靜的地方，而不是提醒你還需要完成的一切。

To further set yourself up for sleep, get blackout curtains to block out light, or invest in a comfortable sleep mask. And consider turning down the heat — or turning up the air conditioning — so that your sleeping area is between 60 and 68 degrees at night. You want your room to be dark and cool, Dr. Prather said, in order to prod the core temperature of our bodies to drop, which happens naturally as we sleep.

You can’t expect your brain to instantly power down the way a laptop does when you close the lid, Dr. Prather said. Instead, you should plan a transition period that lets your brain wind down. Sometimes that’s not possible, he acknowledged; work deadlines and parenting responsibilities might mean you’re engaged right up until you turn off the lights. But ideally, you would give yourself a two hour period to “turn down the volume on your sympathetic nervous system,” he said, cuing to your body and brain that you’re gearing up to rest.

普拉瑟說，不要指望大腦能像筆記型電腦那樣關上蓋子就能立刻休眠。相反，你得計劃一個過渡期，讓大腦放鬆下來。他承認，有時這是不可能的任務；工作截止日和育兒責任可能意味著你必須要忙到熄燈為止。但在理想情況下，你應該給自己兩小時的時間來「調低交感神經系統的音量」，他說，向身體和大腦提示你準備休息了。

You should spend that time doing something pleasant and soothing, like listening to a favorite podcast, chatting on the couch with your partner or watching TV. Dr. Prather offers his patients what he calls a menu of options for that power-down period — they can take a luxurious bath, write in a gratitude journal or even sit outside, weather permitting, and look at the stars. The goal is to find “low arousal” activities that you enjoy, he said.

將時間用於做一些令人愉快和舒緩的事情上，比如聽最喜歡的播客，與伴侶在沙發上聊天，或者看電視。普拉瑟為他的患者提供了他所謂的斷電期選擇清單，包括洗一個舒舒服服的澡，寫一篇感恩日記，甚至在天氣允許的情況下坐在戶外看星星。他說，目標是找到你喜歡的「低覺醒」活動。

Many clinicians caution against screen time before bed, but Dr. Prather said he pays more attention to the content of what people consume as they settle down for the night, rather than whether they’re looking at a laptop, a paperback or their phone. A thriller — whether it’s a novel or a movie — can prompt you to stay awake a bit longer or to mull over the answer to a mystery as you’re trying to fall asleep. Instead, he recommended watching something calming, and ideally, a show you’ve seen before. Dr. Prather turns to “The Office,” which he said he’s rewatched more times than he can count, because he already knows what happens next.

許多臨床醫師都建議在睡前少看螢幕，但普拉瑟說，不管是看筆記型電腦、平板還是手機，他更關注的是人們晚上入睡前看了什麼。驚險故事——不管是小說還是電影——會讓人清醒更久，或是在想要入睡的時候還在思索某一謎團的答案。因此，他建議看一些舒緩的內容，最好是你以前看過的節目。普拉瑟會看《辦公室》，他說自己已經看了無數遍，因為他知道劇情接下來會發生什麼。

As people age, especially in their fifties, sixties and seventies, sleep can become more fragmented, Dr. Prather said. People may need to urinate in the night more frequently, or pain might keep them awake. But it’s essential that older adults get sufficient rest — a recent study found that adults over 50 who slept for five hours or less each night had a greater risk of developing chronic diseases than those who slept for at least seven hours.

In general, if you are struggling to fall or stay asleep you should get out of bed, Dr. Prather said. Give yourself 20 minutes or so to try to sleep, but if you’re still wired, head to the couch or living room and do something quiet, Dr. Prather advised, like knitting or meditating. You only want to associate the position you sleep in with actually falling asleep; if your body gets used to staying awake, and struggling to sleep, in that position, you’ll have a harder time conditioning yourself to sleep through the night.

普拉瑟說，一般來說，如果你難以入睡或睡得不實，應該從床上起來。普拉瑟建議，給自己20分鐘左右的時間嘗試入睡，但如果你仍然不困，那就去沙發或客廳做些安靜的事情，比如編織或冥想。你需要將你睡覺的位置只與實際入睡聯繫起來；如果你的身體習慣於保持清醒，並且難以入睡，那麼在那個狀態下，你將很難調整以讓自己整夜入睡。

If you don’t want to move, or are unable to, even sitting up in the bed can help rewire your brain or flipping over and placing your head where your feet typically lay. While in that new position, you can read, listen to soft, gentle music or put on a soothing podcast — any activity that winds you down, until you feel sleepy again and are ready to get back into your sleeping position.

如果你不想移動或無法移動，即使在床上坐起來也可以幫助你的大腦重新適應，或將頭和腳調換位置。在這個新姿勢下，你可以閱讀、聽輕柔的音樂或播放舒緩的播客——任何讓你放鬆的活動，直到你再次感到睏倦並準備好回到你的睡眠姿勢。

When people are in the throes of a sleepless night, they often stress about how the lack of sleep will clobber them the next day, Dr. Prather said. But one, or even a few, nights of little rest won’t ruin the way you sleep long-term, Dr. Prather said. “Any parent of small kids can tell you that you can survive on less sleep,” he said. “You can have these off nights. Your body is resilient.”

普拉瑟說，當人們在一個不眠之夜中痛苦掙扎時，他們經常擔心，第二天睡眠不足會給他們帶來怎樣的打擊。但普拉瑟說，一晚，甚至幾晚很少休息不會破壞你長期的睡眠方式。「任何有小孩的父母都會告訴你，睡得少也能活下去，」他說。「你會經歷這些糟糕的夜晚。你的身體是有復原力的。」

If you consistently find yourself unable to sleep, you might want to seek out a therapist or clinician trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, which Dr. Prather uses to treat insomnia. Even in chronic cases, he said, poor sleep is curable. A sleep specialist may also prescribe medication in extreme cases or treat underlying conditions that can lead to poor sleep, like sleep apnea.

“When people have insomnia, because it’s so distressing, they’re trying to figure out all the things they can do to allow sleep to work again, like, ‘What can I fix?’ And that kind of effort is actually incompatible with sleeping,” he said. “Sleeping’s about letting go.”

「失眠是如此令人痛苦，當人們失眠時，他們嘗試所有能做的事情讓睡眠進行下去，比如，『有什麼是我可以解決的？』而這種努力實際上與睡眠是對立的，「他說。「睡覺就是放手。」