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《新世紀大學英語系列教材（第二版）： 快速閱讀（4）》： A) Contrary to popular belief, people who sleep six to sevehours a night live longer, and those who sleep eight hours or more die younger, according to the latest study ever conducted othe subject. The study, which tracked the sleeping habits of 1.1 millioAmericans for six years, undermines the advice of many sleep doctors who have long remended that people get eight or nine hours of sleep every night. B) 'There's aold idea that people should sleep eight hours a night,which has no more scientific basis thathe gold at the end of the rainbow,' said Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at SaDiego who led the study, published ia recent issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. 'That's aold wives' tale.' C) The study was not designed to answer why sleeping longer may be deleterious or whether people could extend their life spaby sleeping less. But Kripke said it was possible that people who slept longer tended to suffer from sleep apnea, a conditiowhere impaired breathing puts stress othe heart and brain. He also speculated that the need for sleep was akito food, where getting less thapeople want may be better for them. The study quickly provoked cautions and criticism, with some sleep experts saying that the maiproblem iAmerica's sleep habits was deprivation, not sleeping too much. D) 'None of this says sleep kills people,' said Daniel Buysse, a University of Pittsburgh psychiatrist and the immediate past president of the AmericaAcademy of Sleep Medicine. 'You should sleep as much as you need to feel awake, alert and attentive the next day,' Buysse added. 'I'm much more concerned about people short-changing themselves osleep thapeople sleeping too long.' E) Sleeplessness produces a variety of health consequences that were not measured ithe study, critics said. 'The amount of sleep you get impacts how alert you are, your risk for accidents, how you perform at work and school,' said James Walsh, president of the National Sleep Foundation, a non-profit that advocates better sleep habits. 'There's much more to life thahow long you live.' F) The study used data from aextensive survey conducted by the AmericaCancer Society from 1982 to 1988. Womesleeping eight, nine and 10 hours a night had 13 percent, 23 percent and 41 percent higher risk of dying, respectively, thathose who slept sevehours, the study found. Mesleeping eight, nine and 10 hours a night had 12 percent, 17 percent and 34 percent greater risk of dying withithe study period. G) By contrast, sleeping five hours a night increased the risk for womeby only five percent, and for men, by 11 percent. Among people who slept just three hours a night, womehad a 33 percent increase ideath, and mehad a 19 percent increase, pared with those who slept sevehours. Kripke, the new study's leader, pointed out that relatively few people slept so little - one i1,000-where as almost half of all people slept eight hours or more. H) The study also found that taking a sleeping pill every day increased the risk of death by 25 percent. 'It appears there is no mortality risk to having insomnia,' Kripke said. He remended that people should not routinely take pills to get eight hours of sleep. While acknowledging that the sleeping pills used from 1982 to 1988 were not the same pills being used today, Kripke said, 'without data showing that contemporary pills are safe, these data provide the best informatioabout whether sleeping pills are safe for long-term use.' I) Kripke, whose study was funded by federal tax dollars, said doctors' remendations that everyone get eight hours of sleep a night may have beepartly influenced by the drug panies that make sleeping pills. He cited a report from a public relations firm representing the medicine Ambien, which gave money to the National Sleep Foundatioto alert people about ainsomnia 'public health crisis' as part of a marketing campaign. J) Both Buysse and Walsh have served as paid consultants to makers of sleeping pills, but both denied being influenced by that role. Walsh said most researchers ithe field had accepted consulting fees from the panies, 'because 99 percent of the funding to support this type of research is from pharmaceutical panies.' ……
