I've often wondered how exactly sleep, or lack of it , can have such a devastating effect on our bodies and, guess what, how much we sleep switches good genes on and bad genes off.

我时常思考，睡眠的充足与否会对我们的身体健康带来怎样严重的后果；也不禁去猜测，多久的睡眠才会让基因发挥有益作用。

In early 2013, the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey found a direct link between hours spent sleeping and genes.

2013年初，英国萨里大学的睡眠研究中心发现，睡眠时长与基因之间存在直接联系。

Every cell in our bodies carries genetic instructions in our DNA that act as a kind of operating manual. However, each cell only 'reads' the portion of this manual it needs at any given moment.

我们人体的每一个细胞中DNA所携带的遗传指令都相当于一套操作说明。然而在任何时候，细胞都只能够读取其需要的说明。

Can sleep affect how a gene reads instructions? It's a question asked by Professor Derk-Jan Dijk at the University of Surrey.

睡眠能够影响基因读取其操作说明吗？萨里大学的教授德克-简·迪克提出了这一问题。

He set up an experiment and asked his volunteers to spend a week sleeping around seven and a half hours to eight hours a night and the next sleeping six and a half to seven hours.

他着手进行了一项实验，要求志愿者们每晚睡大约七个半到八个小时，一个星期后再将睡眠时间调整为六个半到七个小时。

Blood samples were taken each week to compare which genes in blood cells were being used during the long and short nights. The results were startling.

他将志愿者这两周的血液样本进行比对，观察在不同睡眠时长下，血细胞中的基因运作情况有何不同。实验结果令人大吃一惊。

Several hundred genes changed in the amount they were being used, including some that are linked to heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes.

数百种基因的使用状况因为睡眠时长的不同而改变，其中一些基因还与心脏病、癌症以及2型糖尿病有关。

Genes to do with cell repair and replenishment were used much less.

对有关细胞修复与补给的基因的使用大为减少。

Sleep restriction (six and a half to seven hours a night) changed 380 genes.

睡眠的受限（一晚只睡六个半到七个小时）改变了380种基因。

Of these, 220 genes were down regulated by sleep restriction (their power was reduced), while 160 were up regulated (their power was increased).

其中，有220种基因表达下调（他们的活性降低），另外160种表达上调（他们的活性上升）。

Those affected included body-clock genes which are linked to diabetes.

那些包括控制生物钟在内的基因都受到了影响，而它们又都与糖尿病有关。

One of the most downgraded genes is that which has a role in controlling insulin and is linked to diabetes and insomnia. The most upgraded gene is linked to heart disease.

在表达下调程度最高的基因中，有一种负责控制胰岛素合成的基因与糖尿病和失眠密切相关。而表达上调程度最高的基因则与心脏病有关联。

So changing sleep by tiny amounts can upgrade or downgrade genes that can influence our health and the diseases we become prey to when we sleep too little.

因此，稍微缩短睡眠时长就会改变基因的运作状态，进而影响到我们的身体健康。若是睡得太少，疾病说来就来。

The important message is that getting close to eight hours of sleep a night can make a dramatic difference to our health in just a few days through the way it looks after our genes.

实验所传达的重要信息是，保证每晚近八小时的睡眠是对我们的基因负责；仅仅几天的充足睡眠，我们的健康也会有巨大的改观。

So resist staying up late to listen to another podcast, read one more chapter, have one more drink or do a little bit more work, mistakenly thinking it won't make much difference. It will.

所以说，要是你坚持熬夜再看一个视频，再多读一章小说，再多贪一杯酒或是再多干点儿活，还安慰自己这没什么大不了的话，那你会后悔的。