Strange Sleeping Habits of the Fam

By Kate Simmons

你是怎么睡觉的呢？和你的宠物一起睡？不能离开心爱的枕头？还是觉得缩成一团睡得更香？关于睡眠，不少人都有自己的小怪癖。而名人们的睡眠故事更是千奇百怪，让我们来一一盘点。

Sleeping habits are very variable throughout our population—for some people, it is a simple balance and straightforward schedule, for others, strange hours and odd sleeping rituals are perfect.1. variable: 多变的，易变的； straightforward:简单的，易懂的； ritual: 惯例，老规矩。Though doctors have generally agreed that it is a healthy habit to get eight hours of sleep each night, many physicians and sleep experts emphasize that each and every body has different needs based on physical composition, diet, healthy or unhealthy habits, daily workload, and emotional or stressful triggers.2. 尽管医生们一般都认为每晚八小时的充足睡眠有益于身体健康，但是许多医生和睡眠专家强调，每个人的体质、饮食结构、（健康或不健康的）生活习惯、工作强度、情感和压力触发点均有所不同，因而每个人也会有不同的需求。trigger: 导火索，触发点。Some people thrive on extra hours of sleep, claiming that it gives them more energy, while others note that it makes them sluggish and often increases the symptoms of being tired.3. thrive on: 乐意做（别人觉得难做或不乐意做的事情），乐在其中；claim: 声称，主张；note: 特别提到，指出；sluggish: 行动缓慢的，反应迟缓的。There are many famous people of our past and present who have relied on their odd sleeping patterns for success.

Inventors Who Had a Strange Habit of Getting Rest睡眠也疯狂之发明家篇

Imagine having absolutely no sleeping schedule—only resting when your body completely shut down against your own will, and resisting long periods of sleep in order to work around the clock.4. shut down: 使……停止运转；against one’s will: 违背某人的意愿，违心；around the clock: 夜以继日地。Most of us would agree that this would make us go insane—but for some of our greatest inventors of the past, it only contributed to their insane amounts of creativity.5. insane: 疯狂的，发疯的；contribute to: 促成，有助于。

Thomas Edison, the light bulb inventor, was infamous for falling asleep with his eyes still open.6. light bulb:（白炽灯的）灯泡；infamous: 声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的。While in his of fice during the midnight hours, he would end up sleeping on his worktable instead of going home to get proper rest, and would awake as soon as possible in order to continue working.

Elias Howe, the inventor of the modern sewing machine, claimed to have invented the proper needle-threading machinery through his intensive dreams during his odd sleeping schedule.7. Elias Howe: 伊莱亚斯·豪（1819—1867），美国发明家，现代缝纫机的发明者；needle-threading: 缝纫，此处的“proper needle-threading machinery”指的就是能够正常操作的缝纫机器；intensive:密集的，紧张的。

Perhaps the oddest inventor sleep cycle was that of Leonardo da Vinci—who would sleep only 20 minutes at a time, napping just ever three hours in order to stay refreshed throughout the whole day and night.

The Strange Sleeping Rituals of Artists and Writers睡眠也疯狂之艺术家和作家篇

Ernest Hemingway took a very strange approach to sleep—like many of his artistic and creative contemporaries, he would stay awake for days without sleeping, finally resting for an entire twentyfour hours of sleep or more before beginning the cycle again.8.a p p r o a c h:（处理问题、完成任务的）方法，方式；contemporary: 生活于同一时期的人，同代人。Edgar Allen Poe and Sigmund Freud were also known to follow these patterns, stimulated in particular by drugs like cocaine and opium and strong drinks like absinthe that made their waking hours far more psychedelic than a typical night of dreaming.9. 埃德加·爱伦·坡和西格蒙德·弗洛伊德也遵循了上述睡眠周期，而且他们还服用可卡因和鸦片等麻醉剂，喝苦艾酒等烈酒，这些刺激物使得他们梦醒后比梦境中更迷离。Edgar Allen Poe: 埃德加·爱伦·坡（1809—1849），美国作家、诗人；Sigmund Freud:西格蒙德·弗洛伊德（1856—1939），奥地利心理学家，精神分析学的创始人；absinthe: 苦艾酒，是一种茴香味的烈酒；psychedelic: 引起幻觉的。Salvador Dali, the famous surrealist painter, tried to wake himself up just as he began to dream in order to remember those fantasies and incorporate them into his work.10. Salvador Dali: 萨尔瓦多·达利（1904—1989），西班牙著名画家，因为其超现实主义作品而闻名，他与毕加索、马蒂斯一同被认为是20世纪最有代表性的三位画家；surrealist: 超现实主义的；fantasy: 幻想，幻觉；incorporate: 包含，吸收。

For a modern-day example,consider the amazing singer Mariah Carey, who has had a very strange sleeping pattern throughout her life that was dictated in part by her industry.11. Mariah Carey: 玛利亚·凯莉（1970— ），美国天后歌手之一；dictate: 对……有决定性影响。

For years, she operated nocturnally12. nocturnally: 在夜间。, sleeping during the daylight hours and waking up in the evening to record all night. Now with her children, her sleep patterns have become more normalized to their schedules, but she prefers recording in the night hours.

Great Thinkers Who Kept Odd Sleeping Habits睡眠也疯狂之思想家篇

In contrast with many of the celebrities mentioned above, many famous people have struggled to get as much sleep as possible to help their success. Rene Descartes stayed in bed as long as possible each day in order to write his philosophical texts—often eating a breakfast in bed at midday and staying in pajamas for the rest of his waking hours, writing from the comfort of his cot.13. Rene Descartes: 勒内·笛卡尔（1596—1650），法国著名的哲学家、数学家和物理学家，对现代数学的发展做出了重要的贡献，因将几何坐标体系公式化而被认为是解析几何之父；pajama: 睡衣；cot: 简易小床。

Albert Einstein loved his sleep: he claimed to need at least ten hours of sleep each night in order to function properly during the day, and he reported that he couldn’t think properly without sleep.

Benjamin Franklin, a true American patriot and Renaissance man, had trouble sleeping through the night. He, like many who face insomnia14. insomnia: 失眠症。, could only sleep for a few hours before waking up in the middle of the night. He tried to cure this odd habit with a ritual: he would sleep for one half of the night with his head at the top of the bed, and then after he woke up a few hours later, he would turn his body so that his head was at the base of his mattress15. mattress: 床垫。. Perhaps the changed position gave his body extra support and comforted his back and neck, or perhaps it was just a ritual that helped to calm his anxieties about sleeping. Imagine if Benjamin Franklin had been able to search for a proper mattress online to comfort him when he woke up from his slumber16. slumber: 睡眠。—surely he wouldn’t have been moving his body around quite so much to find comfort!

Throughout history, we’ve certainly noticed many strange sleeping habits of individuals—and the fascination with sleep and dreams lives on. The moral17. moral: （由寓言、故事、事件引出的）道德上的教训，寓意。of the story seems to be that we should find what works best for us. Make sure we find the right mattress and bed that support our bodies during our restful moments.Perhaps it is strange that these celebrities rested in abnormal18. abnormal: 反常的，不正常的。ways throughout their lives and still managed to be successful—others believe that these odd sleeping patterns are in fact what have pushed these people towards fame and fortune.