Some of you may know me as The Sleep Doctor.

有些人可能有聽過我睡眠博士的稱號。

I've spent the last 19 years seeing patients, doing research and educating everyone on the benefits of a good night's sleep.

我前十九年的時間都花在研究、教育大眾睡眠的好處、以及治療患者上。

Today I'm going to dispel a myth that surrounds the two most abused substances worldwide, caffeine and alcohol.

今天，我就要來破除圍繞世界上兩種嚴重被濫用的物質 (咖啡因和酒精) 的迷思。

The truth is, there are a lot of stories about the effect of both of these products on sleep.

關於這兩個物質對睡眠的影響，各方都有不同的說法。

Caffeine is the most popular fast-acting stimulant in the world today.

咖啡因是當今世界上最受歡迎的速效刺激物。

Coffee accounts for 54% of all the caffeine consumed in the world, tea accounts for the other 43%.

咖啡佔了全世界咖啡因消費量的 54％，而茶則佔了其他 43％。

So, 97% of all the caffeine taken daily around the world comes from these two products.

所以，人們每天攝入的 97% 的咖啡因都來自這兩個產品。

On any given day, 85% of all Americans use at least one caffeinated product.

每天都有 85% 的美國人使用了至少一種含咖啡因的產品。

In fact, the amount of caffeine consumed on an average day by adult Americans is about 300 milligrams per person.

實際上，成年美國人平均每天攝取的咖啡因量約為 300 毫克。

That's about three times higher than the world average.

這大概高於世界平均值三倍。

But before we go and condemn the Americans for ingesting too much caffeine, that's only half of the daily caffeine consumed in heavy tea-drinking countries, like England and Sweden.

但在我們開始譴責美國人攝入過多的咖啡因之前，我們要知道，這只是英格蘭和瑞典等喜愛喝茶國家的平均每日咖啡因攝量的一半而已。

Now, most people think caffeine doesn't stay in their body system very long.

目前大多數人都認為咖啡因不會在人體停留很長的時間。

"I can drink a cup of coffee after dinner and I'll be fine to go to sleep."

「我可以在晚餐後喝一杯咖啡，但還是能順利入睡。」

That's what lots of people tell me.

這是很多人告訴我的。

Well, that's a very popular myth.

這是一個尤其受歡迎的迷思。

The half-life of caffeine in your body is between six and eight hours.

咖啡因在人體內的半衰期為六至八個小時。

That means if you consume 100 milligrams of caffeine in the morning, six to eight hours later, you're still going to have 50 milligrams that's impacting your system.

這等於是在說，當你在早上攝取了 100 毫克咖啡因之後，六至八小時之後仍會殘留 50 毫克的咖啡因繼續影響你的生理系統。

We know that when you have about half of your total daily intake, it does not affect the ability to fall asleep.

我們知道，當體內的咖啡因剩下每天總攝入量的一半時，它就不會影響入睡的能力。

So if you want to go to bed at 10:00 pm without having caffeine affecting your sleep habits, you need to stop drinking caffeine by about 2:00 pm.

因此，如果你想在晚上十點上床睡覺而不讓咖啡因影響您的睡眠習慣，你就需要在下午兩點左右停止攝取咖啡因。

Now, for those of you working in high-paced jobs, the idea of giving up caffeine so early in the day is quite surprising.

講到這裡，在下午兩點就放棄咖啡因的想法對於從事高強度工作的人來說可能是令人難以相信的。

But if you want to achieve optimum sleep, it's important to remove the stimulant, like caffeine.

但如果你想達到理想的睡眠狀態，移除這些興奮劑，如咖啡因是很重要的。

While you may feel like the buzz from a cup of coffee or tea only lasts for an hour or two, in fact, its impact lasts much longer.

雖然你感覺到的一杯咖啡或茶達到的效用只會持續一兩個小時，但實際上，它們的影響持續的時間是更長的。

Okay, so then what if you can't sleep?

好，那如果你現在睡不著了怎麼辦？

Alcohol is the number one sleep aid in the world.

酒精是世界上最好的助眠藥劑。

You'd think that would be a good thing, but alcohol also deprives you from feeling the effects of deep sleep, mainly stages three and four which can have the most important impact on your body.

你可能以為這是一件好事，但酒精影響的是你深度睡眠的品質，尤其在第三與第四階段，而這可能對你的身體造成很巨大的影響。

So, you need to give your body time to absorb the alcohol before allowing yourself to go to sleep.

所以你必須在睡前給你的身體足夠的時間吸收酒精。

It takes the average human body approximately one hour to absorb one alcoholic beverage.

一般的人體吸收一杯酒精飲料大約需要一個小時。

So if you're going to be drinking in the evening and have, say, three glasses of wine, you need to make sure to give your body at least three hours after the last glass before going to sleep.

因此，如果您打算晚上喝三杯葡萄酒，你就需要確保在喝完最後一杯酒之後，要等至少三個小時才能上床睡覺。

This will allow your body to recover so it can provide you with the best sleep possible.

這會讓你的身體有足夠的時間復原，並提供更好的睡眠品質。

So the problem isn't necessarily alcohol itself, but how we process it.

因此，這邊的問題不是酒精本身，而是我們如何吸收酒精。

It's okay to drink alcohol, but the key is timing.

喝酒可以，但關鍵是喝的時間點。

Timing is critical in terms of how it affects your sleep, your health and your next day.

在酒精對你的睡眠、健康以及第二天的影響上，喝酒的時機點是至關重要的。

So, no alcohol.

所以喝酒不能助眠。

Then you might be wondering, what can I do for a good night's rest?

那麼你可能會想，我要做什麼才能睡得更好？

Exercise is a simple way to improve the quality of your sleep.

運動是一個最簡單的，能提升睡眠品質的方法。

As little as 20 to 25 minutes of daily exercise will improve the length and depth of your sleep.

每天只需 20 到 25 分鐘的運動時間就可以改善你的睡眠長度和品質。

However, if you exercise too close to bedtime, it might affect your ability to fall asleep.

但如果你的運動時間太接近入睡時間的話，它可能反而會限制到你入睡的能力。

A good rule is not to exercise within four hours of your desired bedtime.

保險的方法是不要在入睡前的四小時運動。

Otherwise, you may actually find sleep more difficult.

不然的話，你可能會發現自己更睡不著。

Another big thing is the negative impact of using your phone or tablet when you're going to bed at night.

另外一件很重要的事是在睡覺前使用手機或電腦造成的負面影響。

Your exposure to light can cause a whole host of sleep problems.

曝光在藍光前可能會衍伸出一連串的睡眠問題。

Getting some form of light within 30 minutes of waking up is usually one of the best things you can do for your circadian rhythms in the morning, but you don't want that blue light at night.

在早晨醒來的三十分鐘內曝光在光源下可以幫助你的生理時鐘更加規律，但晚上的時間就不該接觸藍光。

Doing something like going out to get the morning paper or taking your dog for a walk is a wonderful way to help your body establish this new waking pattern.

出去拿晨報、遛狗等都是很棒的方法，它們會幫助你建立新的一套喚醒身體的模式。

But what we're talking about is blue light.

但我們剛剛在討論的是藍光的問題。

That's the type of light that is emitted from either your mobile phone or your tablet.

它就是你的手機或平板電腦發出的光的類型。

What people don't realize is that blue light is like caffeine for the brain.

人們不知道的是，藍光對大腦來說就像咖啡因一樣。

It causes a reaction in your body that suppresses the melatonin, which is what helps regulate your sleep cycles.

它會抑制褪黑激素的分泌，因而影響到它調節睡眠週期的作用。

So if you want to develop healthy sleep patterns, it's important not to use your phone in bed.

因此如果你想建立一個健康的睡眠模式，那麼不要在床上用手機就是很重要的。

Because when you turn your phone on and surf even for as little as five minutes, it can have a dramatic effect on your system, and it's kind of like taking a shot of caffeine.

因為當你打開手機上網，即使你只用了五分鐘，它仍會對你的生理系統產生巨大影響，就像喝了一杯咖啡因一樣。

And that's definitely not what you want to be doing late at night.

而這絕對是你在睡覺前想要避免的。

So to sum it up, don't drink caffeine past 2:00 pm, don't drink alcohol right before bedtime.

所以總結來說，不要在下午兩點後攝取咖啡因，不要在睡前喝酒。

The rule is if you have two glasses of wine, you need to give your body at least two hours before going to sleep.

這裡的規則是，如果你要喝兩杯紅酒，那你就要給身體兩小時復原後再上床睡覺。

Exercise 20 to 25 minutes a day will give you a better night's rest, and put that phone away just before bed.

20 到 25 分鐘間的運動時間可以提升睡眠品質，還有不要在睡前滑手機。

If you want to learn to sleep like a champion and optimize your sleep for increased energy and productivity, sign up for my upcoming Masterclass with Mindvalley.

如果你想學習更多睡眠知識，並透過優化睡眠增加你一天的能量與效率，請在 Mindvalley 報名參加我的大師班課程。

I'll have you sleeping like a baby in no time.

我會讓你睡得非常香。

See you in the Masterclass.

到時見。