为什么天气一热，我们就更难入睡？真相隐藏在人体的散热机制当中。当气温和湿度上升时，血管舒张、出汗等体温调节机制的效率会大打折扣。专家建议，在高温天气下，适当使用空调并保持良好的通风对营造舒适的睡眠环境尤为重要；选择更轻薄透气的床上用品和睡衣也有助于改善入睡时的体感温度。你是否也在为炎炎夏日里的睡眠问题而烦恼？阅读本文，了解应对高温的实用助眠小技巧。
词汇：hot weather and sleep 高温天气和睡眠
1 Around the world, summers are getting hotter. Day and night temperatures are increasing. What impact could that be having on how we sleep?
2 Temperature and sleep are closely linked. Typically, our bodies cool themselves down before we sleep. One of the main ways that we do this is by widening blood vessels near the skin to allow heat to dissipate. In hot weather, this process becomes less effective as it is more difficult for heat to be transferred. One of the body’s mechanisms to speed up this process is by allowing sweat to evaporate. However, in humid conditions it’s harder for evaporation to take place. If the body is unable to cool down, then it’s more difficult for people to fall asleep and more likely that sleep patterns can be disrupted.
3 This means that it’s important for us to try to manage the temperature of the environment that we sleep in. While it can be costly, air conditioning is a useful tool to keep our sleeping environment cool. Managing ventilation is also important. During the hottest hours of the day keeping windows and curtains closed can stop hot air and heat from sunlight entering our homes. At night, once the temperature has dropped, opening windows can allow cool air to come in and reduce the temperature in our homes. Fans can help to speed up cooling, as long as air temperatures are low enough. They become less effective in hotter conditions.
4 It’s not just rooms that we can cool down. Using breathable bedding and sleepwear makes it easier for our bodies to regulate temperature. While it may seem counter-intuitive, it can be beneficial to have a warm bath or shower before sleep. Warm water can cause more blood to flow to our skin. Once you get out of the bath or shower, this means that you cool down more quickly. Another tip suggested by sleep experts Kevin Morgan and Lisa Artis is to cool your socks in the fridge and then put them on before going to sleep. They also say that it’s important to try to keep to your usual sleep routine to avoid disruption to your sleep habits.
测验与练习
一、将标题和段落配对。
Paragraph 1 _______
Paragraph 2 _______
Paragraph 3 _______
Paragraph 4 _______
a. Our body’s natural cooling
b. Climate change
c. Keeping yourself cool
d. Keeping bedrooms cool
e. Increasing heat
二、根据文章内容选出正确的选项。
1. Temperatures are increasing globally.
a. True
b. False
c. Not given
2. What does ‘this’ refer to in the following sentence? One of the main ways that we do this is by widening blood vessels near the skin to allow heat to dissipate.
a. sleeping in the heat
b. cooling our bodies before sleep
c. managing the sleep environment
3. What stops sweating being effective?
a. late nights
b. evaporation
c. high humidity
4. What disadvantage of air conditioning is mentioned?
a. ventilation
b. ineffectiveness
c. the price
5. What kind of shower does the article recommend for a hot weather?
a. warm
b. cold
c. icy
三、用下列单词完成对本文的总结。
Usually, before we sleep our bodies allow heat to 1) _______ to cool us down. In hot humid weather this 2) _______ is less effective making it harder for us to sleep. We can manage the temperature in our sleeping environment by using air conditioning or ensuring that there is sufficient 3) _______. Using 4) _______ fabrics for our 5) _______ can also help us to get a good night’s sleep.
disrupt
dissipate
breathable
mechanism
transfer
bedding
ventilation
（答案见词汇表后）
词汇表
blood vessel 血管
dissipate 消散
transfer 转移
mechanism 机制
sweat 汗，汗水
humid 潮湿的
evaporation 蒸发
disrupt 干扰，使…混乱
ventilation 通风，空气流通
fan 风扇
breathable 透气的
bedding 床上用品
sleepwear 睡衣
regulate 调节，调整
counter-intuitive 反直觉的
sleep routine 睡眠规律，作息规律
sleep habit 睡眠习惯
答案
一、将标题和段落配对。
Paragraph 1 e) Increasing heat
Paragraph 2 a) Our body’s natural cooling
Paragraph 3 d) Keeping bedrooms cool
Paragraph 4 c) Keeping yourself cool
二、根据文章内容选出正确的选项。
1. a. True. Around the world summers are getting hotter. Day and night temperatures are increasing.
2. b. The pronoun ‘this’ refers to cooling our body down, mentioned in the previous sentence
3. c. One of the body’s mechanisms to speed up this process is sweating. However, in humid conditions it is harder for evaporation to take place.
4. c. While it can be costly, air conditioning is a useful tool to keep our sleeping environment cool.
5. a. While it may seem counter-intuitive, it can be beneficial to have a warm bath or shower before sleep.
三、用方框中的单词完成对本文的总结。
Usually, before we sleep our bodies allow heat to dissipate to cool us down. In hot humid weather this mechanism is less effective making it harder for us to sleep. We can manage the temperature in our sleeping environment by using air conditioning or ensuring that there is sufficient ventilation. Using breathable fabrics for our bedding can also help us to get a good night’s sleep.