This Is How Important Sleep Is for Your Mental Health

If you have ever stopped of a long-haul flight or worked night shifts（换班制）, you probably noticed changes in your mood（情绪）, concentration, and general well-being（幸福）. These changes are the result of disturbances to your natural sleep-wake cycle（醒睡周期）, your "circadian rhythm（生理节律）." And disruptions to this cycle can have worse consequences than just feeling a bit moody or distracted（心烦意乱）. Our latest research shows that it is associated with an increased risk of depression and bipolar disorder（躁郁症）.
如果你刚刚下了一架跨夜飞行的飞机，或者刚下了夜班，你可能会注意到你的情绪、注意力和幸福度都发生了变化。这些变化发生的原因是你的醒睡周期，即你的生理节律发生了变化。对这个周期的破坏可能会产生比情绪低落或心烦意乱更糟糕的后果。我们最后的调查显示这个周期的破坏会提高感到沮丧和得躁郁症的概率。

Circadian rhythms are variations（变化） in biological or behavioral processes that recur（复发） on a roughly 24-hour cycle. These rhythms occur（发生） in body temperature, hormone release, and rest-activity patterns, and are thought to be fundamental to our physical and mental health.
生理节律在生理的或行为上的变化过程会在24小时的周期内复发。这些节律在体温、激素释放和休息活动模式中发生，并被认为是让我们生理健康和心理健康的基础。

Previous studies have investigated（研究） the relationship between disruptions（破坏） to circadian rhythms and mental health, but they have been limited by using only subjective（个人的）(self report) measures of sleep and activity, and have typically（代表性地） used very small samples. Also, many of these earlier studies didn't properly（正确地） account （解释）for other lifestyle factors that might explain poor mental health, such as childhood trauma（创伤）.
之前的研究调查了生理节律紊乱和心理健康之间的关系，但是研究由于仅仅调查个人对睡觉和活动的感觉而被限制了，并且代表性地只用了很少的调查样本。除此之外，很多早前的研究没有正确地解释其他的与生活方式有关的因素与更差的心理健康有没有关系，比如童年时遭受的创伤。

We addressed（解决） these issues in our study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, by using a large sample(over 91,000 participants, drawn from UK Biobank) and by objectively（客观地） measuring participants' activity with wrist-worn（可戴的） activity monitors. We also took a wide range of factors into account that might otherwise explain the state of participants' mental health or cognitive（认知的） function（功能）.
我们在我们新的调查中，通过使用了大规模的样本（调查了来自英国生物银行的超过91000个人）和客观地给参与者戴上监控装置调查参与者的活动解决了这个问题，并出版在了杂志《柳叶刀》的心理学板块上。另外，我们还把更多可能影响参与者的心理健康或认知功能的因素加入到了调查之中。

Overall, our findings provide strong support for the idea that a disturbed circadian rhythm is associated with poor mental health and well-being. They also suggest that daily activity levels, which can be cheaply and easily measured during a digital activity tracker, could be used to assess（评估） people's risk of developing depression or bipolar disorder.
总的来说，我们的调查证实了破坏生理节律会导致更差的心理健康和幸福感。他们建议，对于评估日常活动水平，可以通过购买便宜的、简单的通过数字活动追踪器来评估人们情绪越来越低落或者躁郁症。

Growing, Global Problem
增加的全球性问题

These findings could have important public health implications（暗示）, as increasing reliance（信赖） on artificial light, particularly at night, is associated with disturbed circadian rhythms. This is because people exposed to high amounts of artificial light at night are less able to synchronize（使……同步） their rhythms to natural daylight cycles.
这些发现可能会对大众健康情况产生重要影响，因为越来越多的人依赖人造光，尤其是在晚上，这与生理节律紊乱有关。这是因为人们在晚上使用高强度的人造光导致人们很难将生理节律和自然光的强度联系在一起。

It is estimated（估计） that almost two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities by the year 2030. This means that most people will be subject to（受支配） conditions（情况） that can worsen（恶化） circadian（生理节奏的） disruption and, by extension, vulnerability（易损性，弱点） to poor mental and physical health.
据估计，在2030年，会有将近三分之二的世界人口居住在城市中。这意味着绝大部分的人受这种条件的支配会导致生理节奏受到越来越严重的破坏，并且会引发越来越差的心理健康和生理健康。

What our new study can't tell us is the direction of causality. We don't know whether circadian disruption leads to poorer mental health and well-being, whether mood disorders lead to circadian disruption, or whether both are linked to other shared genetic（遗传的） or environmental factors.
我们新的研究不能显示出这些结果是由什么因素直接导致的。我们也不能明白生理节律紊乱是否导致了更差的心理健康和幸福感，或者情感失控是否可以导致生理节律紊乱，或者这两者是否与遗传的或环境的一些因素有关。

We hope that future, long-term studies, following up on the same people in the UK Biobank, will be able to address the issue of cause and effect in more detail. It will be important to examine, for example, whether objectively measured circadian disruption can predict new diagnoses（诊断） or new episodes（发作） of mood disorders. It would also be useful to know whether stabilizing（使稳定） circadian rhythms in mood disorder patients leads to improved symptoms（症状） and well-being.
我们期待着在未来通过长时间继续追踪来自英国生物银行的人能够更详细的解决这些因果关系的问题。这很重要，比如说客观地调查生理节律紊乱可以预测新的诊断或新的情绪失控发作。这对知道使患有情绪失控引发的的症状和幸福感的患者的生理节律稳定来说是很有用的。

We have known for a long time that sleep and circadian function are important for physical health, but we are now beginning to recognize their importance for mental health. Part of the work of our research group is to better understand the mechanisms（机制） linking circadian disruption and mental ill-health and use this new knowledge to develop new treatments for conditions such as major depression and bipolar disorder.
我们一直知道睡觉和生理节律活动对我们的生理健康非常重要，但是我们现在才开始意识到睡觉和生理节律活动对心理健康的重要性。我们调查组的一部分工作是更好地理解联系生理节律紊乱和心理生病的关系，并且用这个新知识去发展治疗沮丧和躁郁症的方法。