A good night's rest

BBC Learning English
6 Minute English
A good night's rest
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
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Kate: Hello, I’m Kate Colin and this is 6 Minute English. Today I'm joined by
Rebecca Byrne and we’re talking about sleep, or lack of it. Hi Rebecca, I have
a question for you to start the programme with - how many hours sleep do you
need a night?
Rebecca: I need on average 7 to 8 hours I think to feel….human at least.
Kate: That's a good long time. Well, this month is National Bed Month – an event
which is organised by The Sleep Council. Their aim is to remind us of the
importance of getting a good night's sleep. 40 years ago most people got 8
hours sleep a night. But with busy lifestyles today, we're more likely to get
around 6, which is not enough for most people. So in today’s programme
we’re going to talk about what happens when you don’t get enough sleep.
Rebecca: (yawns) I'm feeling pretty tired already actually…why don’t you wake me up
with the question for this week?
Kate: Alright then, here we go. What is the longest time someone has managed to go
without sleep?
a) 20 days
b) 11 days
c) 3 days
Rebecca: Answers
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
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Kate: Okay, we’ll check your answer at the end of the programme. Not sleeping enough
is sometimes referred to as ‘sleep deprivation¹’. To be deprived of something
means to not have enough. This is something which unfortunately is beginning to
affect many school children today. Listen to the following extract to hear a teacher
talking about what happens when her pupils don’t get enough sleep. Can you tell
me what she says are some of the symptoms of sleep deprivation?
Woman
It shows in all sorts of different ways, concentration is poor, behaviour gets worse as the week
goes on, as the kids are getting less and less sleep.
Rebecca: She said that their concentration is poor. If someone’s 'concentration is poor’ it
means that they are lees able to think clearly. She also says that they do not
behave well, so they may be talking a lot and not able to do much work.
Kate: That’s correct. In the next extract she mentions 'sleeping in'. This is an
expression we use when we can spend longer that usual in bed because we don’t
have to get up for work or school. Or we can 'sleep in' by mistake, when we fail to
wake up when we're supposed to. For example, I was late for work today because
'I slept in'. On to the clip…
Woman
Over the weekend, they get the chance often to sleep in on Saturday or Sunday and so they
can catch up on some of the sleep and so by Friday, tempers are getting very frayed² because
they're just very stressed, tetchy and sleepy.
Rebecca: So, she said they get the chance to ‘sleep in’ at the weekends. She also says as
the week goes on, her students get more and more tired. The symptoms of
being tired are that ‘tempers are frayed’ and they are ‘stressed’, ‘tetchy’ and
‘sleepy’.
Kate: Yes, the expression ‘tempers are frayed’ means to get 'easily angry'.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
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Rebecca: and ‘tetchy’ is often used when talking about how you feel when you haven’t
had enough sleep, it means easily angered or upset.
Kate: Next we're going to hear what a sleep expert has to say about the effect of not
getting enough sleep. See if you can hear what are the main areas?
Man
Where it's damaging (I think there's at least 3 general areas). One intellectually - sleep is
important for concentration and vigilance. Another aspect is behavioural. They tend to
become tetchy and irritable³ and hostile during the day.
Kate: He says there are 3 general areas where which are affected⁴ by sleep deprivation.
The first was that it can be damaging intellectually. He says that sleep is important
for ‘concentration’ and for ‘vigilance’. What do these words mean?
Jackie: 'Concentration' is the ability to think clearly and carefully about one thing in
particular. To do mathematics or to read a book for example, requires
concentration.
Kate: …..and 'vigilance'?
Rebecca: 'Vigilance' is the ability to pay attention and to notice things, especially possible
danger.
Kate: He also goes on to say that another negative aspect of sleep deprivation is
‘behavioual’. This word relates to how the children are behaving and acting⁵ in the
classroom. They can be ‘techty’, ‘irratible’ and ‘hostile’. We came across the
word 'techty' earlier but what do the other words mean?
Rebecca: 'Irritable' means that someone becomes annoyed very easily and 'hostile' means
unfriendly and likely to be disagreeable.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
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Kate: Exactly, let's listen to the last clip…
Man
I think also more worryingly, there's also this association with obesity⁶ and the kids getting
sleep tend to be the fatter kids.
Rebecca: He said that it has an association with 'obesity'. Obesity is when people weigh too
much or are too fat for their height. I suppose this much be related to sleep
deprivation because when you're tired, you do tend to eat more.
Kate: So let’s go over some of the vocabulary we came across today:
We had sleep deprivation which means to not have enough sleep
sleep in, when we spend longer than usual in bed
tempers are getting very frayed means to get easily angry
tetchy is to be irritable, easily angered or upset
concentration is the ability to think clearly and carefully
vigilance is the ability to pay attention and to notice things, especially possible
danger
hostile is unfriendly and likely to be disagreeable
obesity is extremely overweight or fat
Finally to the question I asked earlier. What is the longest someone has gone
without sleep?
Rebecca: I said 3 days.
Kate: I'm afraid you were wrong. It's actually an incredible 11 days! The record was
broken by 17 year old Andy Gardner in 1964. Well that's all we have time for
today. I hope we've convinced you to get a good night's sleep tonight.
Both: Until next time - goodbye!(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

2 frayed   

adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His shirt was frayed. 他的衬衫穿破了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The argument frayed their nerves. 争辩使他们不快。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 irritable   

adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的

参考例句：

• He gets irritable when he's got toothache.他牙一疼就很容易发脾气。
• Our teacher is an irritable old lady.She gets angry easily.我们的老师是位脾气急躁的老太太。她很容易生气。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。