I first encountered these intriguing attitudes to sleep during my first stay in Japan in the late 1980s. At that time Japan was at the peak of what became known as the Bubble Economy, a phase of extraordinary speculative boom. Daily life was correspondingly hectic. People filled their schedules with work and leisure appointments, and had hardly any time to sleep. The lifestyle of this era is aptly summed up by a wildly popular advertising slogan of the time, extolling the benefits of an energy drink. “Can you battle through 24 hours? / Businessman! Businessman! Japanese businessman!”

我第一次见识到日本人对于睡眠的这种有趣态度是在上世纪80年代末首次去日本时。当时，日本正处于泡沫经济的巅峰时期，整个社会的投机氛围泛滥，日常生活也处于高度忙碌状态。人们整天忙于工作和休闲约会，几乎连睡觉的时间都挤不出来。当时最为流行的一条能量饮料广告语恰如其分地反映了这段时期人们的生活方式：“谁能24小时战斗不停？商人！商人！日本商人！”

Many voiced the complaint: “We Japanese are crazy to work so much!” But in these complaints one detected a sense of pride at being more diligent and therefore morally superior to the rest of humanity. Yet, at the same time, I observed countless people dozing on underground trains during my daily commute. Some even slept while standing up, and no one appeared to be at all surprised by this.

许多人抱怨说：“我们日本人工作太辛苦，简直太疯狂！”但是在这种抱怨声中也不乏一丝自豪：勤勉苦干的日本人由此拥有了对其他民族的某种道德优越感。然而，与此同时，我每天在地铁车厢里都会发现有无数的日本人在打盹，有些人甚至站着就呼呼大睡，没人会对此大惊小怪。

I found this attitude contradictory. The positive image of the worker bee, who cuts back on sleep at night and frowns on sleeping late in the morning, seemed to be accompanied by an extensive tolerance of so-called ‘inemuri’ – napping on public transportation and during work meetings, classes and lectures. Women, men and children apparently had little inhibition about falling asleep when and wherever they felt like doing so.

我发现这种态度自相矛盾。这些晚上很晚才睡，却在早晨因为缺乏睡眠而哈欠连天的“工蜂”在日本属于正面形象，而社会对于“小憩”（inemuri，日本汉字为“居眠”）——指在公共交通工具上、在工作会议、课堂和讲座期间打盹的行为却普遍持宽容态度。无论是妇女、男人还是儿童，都能很自然地随时随地酣然入睡。

If sleeping in a bed or a futon was considered a sign of laziness, then why wasn’t sleeping during an event or even at work considered an even greater expression of indolence? What sense did it make to allow children to stay up late at night to study if it meant that they would fall asleep during class the next day? These impressions and apparent contradictions led to my more intensive involvement with the theme of sleep for my PhD project several years later.

如果人们认为在床上或榻榻米上睡觉属于懒惰行为的话，那么为什么不认为在会议上甚至工作时打瞌睡是更严重的懒散行为？为什么要让儿童学习到深夜，却在第二天的课堂上补觉？带着对这种矛盾意识的疑惑，在几年后攻读博士学位时，我选择了睡眠的文化含义作为课题做了深入研究。

Initially, I had to fight against prejudice as people were reluctant to consider sleep a serious topic for academic enquiry. Of course, it was precisely such attitudes that had originally caught my attention. Sleep can be loaded with a variety of meanings and ideologies; analysing sleep arrangements and the discourse on it reveals attitudes and values embedded in the contexts in which sleep is organised and discussed. In my experience, it is the everyday and seemingly natural events upon which people generally do not reflect that reveal essential structures and values of a society.

研究刚开始的时候，人们认为睡眠本身不是一个严肃的学术研究课题，对此我做了很大努力才打消他们的这种偏见。当然，当初吸引我的正是这种消极态度。睡眠本身承载着多种含义和意识形态要素，对睡眠和与之有关的话语进行分析可以揭示出深植在睡眠组织和讨论语境下的价值观。我发现，大多数人不认为睡眠这种日常而自然的现象会反映出一个社会的核心结构和价值观。

We often assume that our ancestors went to bed ‘naturally’ when darkness fell and rose with the Sun. However, sleep times have never been such a simple matter, whether in Japan or elsewhere. Even before the invention of electric light, the documentary evidence shows that people were scolded for staying up late at night for chatting, drinking and other forms of pleasure. However, scholars – particularly young samurai – were considered highly virtuous if they interrupted their sleep to study, even though this practice may not have been very efficient as it required oil for their lamps and often resulted in them falling asleep during lectures.

我们往往认为人类的祖先遵循日出而作、日落而息的规律生活。但实际上，不管在日本还是在其他地区，人们的睡眠习惯从来就没有如此简单过。即便在电灯发明前，当时的文献记录就曾记载了很多人因为深夜沉湎于聊天、喝酒和其他享乐，迟迟不睡而遭到责备的故事。但人们普遍认为有文化的人——尤其是年轻的武士——挑灯夜读是一种好的品德，即使这种学习习惯可能效率并不高，因为这不仅会耗费更多的油来点燃油灯，而且还会在第二天上课时打盹。

Napping is hardly ever discussed in historical sources and seems to have been widely taken for granted. Falling asleep in public tends to be only mentioned when the nap is the source for a funny anecdote, such as when someone joins in with the wrong song at a ceremony, unaware that they have slept through most of it. People also seem to have enjoyed playing tricks on friends who had involuntarily dozed off.

历史文献里几乎从未提起过打瞌睡，好像当时的人们对此都习以为常。唯一的例外是在公共场所打瞌睡引起某些趣闻轶事的情形，比如，某人在一场典礼上加入合唱时唱错了歌曲，因为他们在典礼的大部分时间内都在睡觉。另外，人们还喜欢拿不知不觉打瞌睡的朋友开玩笑。

Early rising, on the other hand, has clearly been promoted as a virtue, at least since the introduction of Confucianism and Buddhism. In antiquity, sources show a special concern for the work schedule of civil servants, but from the Middle Ages onwards, early rising was applied to all strata of society, with “going to bed late and rising early” used as a metaphor to describe a virtuous person.

另一方面，清晨早起被誉为是一种美德，至少从儒家和佛家被引入日本后是如此。古代文献中有人们对于公务员工作时间表感到担忧的记载，但从中世纪以来，早起就已经成为社会各阶层的共同喜好，“晚睡早起”成为有文化品德的人的象征。

Another interesting issue is co-sleeping. In Britain, parents are often told they should provide even babies with a separate room so that they can learn to be independent sleepers, thus establishing a regular sleep schedule. In Japan, by contrast, parents and doctors are adamant that co-sleeping with children until they are at least at school age will reassure them and help them develop into independent and socially stable adults.

另一个有趣的问题是父母是否与子女共寝。英国的习惯是，父母让儿童在单独卧室里独睡，即便在婴儿时期也是如此。这样做的目的是让儿童学会独立入睡，并建立起有规律的入睡习惯。然而，日本父母和医生却坚决主张父母与子女共寝直到学龄。他们的理由是：这样做不仅会消除儿童的紧张情绪，还有助于塑造独立和适应社会的成人人格。

Maybe this cultural norm helps Japanese people to sleep in the presence of others, even when they are adults – many Japanese say they often sleep better in company than alone. Such an effect could be observed in spring 2011 after the huge tsunami disaster destroyed several coastal towns. Survivors had to stay in evacuation shelters, where dozens or even hundreds of people shared the same living and sleeping space. Notwithstanding various conflicts and problems, survivors described how sharing a communal sleeping space provided some comfort and helped them to relax and regain their sleep rhythm.

可能正是这种文化习惯才让日本成年人在他人面前毫无心理负担地酣然入睡。许多日本人说，他们在有人陪伴时睡眠质量比独处时更好。2011年春天，威力巨大的海啸袭击了日本几座沿海城市。灾难发生后，幸存者们挤住在避难所里，数十甚至数百人共处同一片屋檐下。虽然人和人之间也发生了某些冲突和问题，但幸存者们却说，和这么多人一起睡觉让他们更为放松，更易入眠，并且重新找回了健康的睡眠节律。

However, this experience of sleeping in the presence of others as children is not sufficient on its own to explain the widespread tolerance of inemuri, especially at school and in the workplace. After some years of investigating this subject, I finally realised that on a certain level, inemuri is not considered sleep at all. Not only is it seen as being different from night-time sleep in bed, it is also viewed differently from taking an afternoon nap or power nap.

然而，婴儿时期与他人共寝的经验无法解释日本人对于小憩，尤其是对学校和工作场所小憩的的广泛宽容态度。经过为期数年的调查，我终于意识到：在某种程度上，日本人根本不把小憩和睡眠同等对待。在日本人心目中，小憩不仅和夜间床上睡眠毫不相干，与睡午觉也有所区别。

How can we make sense of this? The clue lies in the term itself, which is composed of two Chinese characters. ‘I’ which means ‘to be present’ in a situation that is not sleep and ‘nemuri’ which means ‘sleep’. Erving Goffman’s concept of “involvement within social situations” is useful I think in helping us grasp the social significance of inemuri and the rules surrounding it. Through our body language and verbal expressions we are involved to some extent in every situation in which we are present. We do, however, have the capacity to divide our attention into dominant and subordinate involvement.

原因何在？首先要从它的文字组成来分析。“小憩”的日语汉字写法是由两个汉字组成：“居”和“眠”。“居”指“在场”，“眠”指“睡眠”。我认为，埃文•古夫曼（Erving Goffman）提出的“融入社会环境”概念能够帮助我们了解小憩的社会意义以及与其有关的规则。通过身体语言和口头表达，我们在某种程度上介入到所处的环境之中。然而，我们可以把自己的注意力分割为数个可支配的底层介入活动。

In this context, inemuri can be seen as a subordinate involvement which can be indulged in as long as it does not disturb the social situation at hand – similar to daydreaming. Even though the sleeper might be mentally ‘away’, they have to be able to return to the social situation at hand when active contribution is required. They also have to maintain the impression of fitting in with the dominant involvement by means of body posture, body language, dress code and the like.

在这种情况下，小憩可看做是一种底层介入，在没有打扰所处的社会环境的情况下，不必对此大惊小怪——这点和白日梦很类似。尽管小憩者此时可能已经精神溜号，但在需要主动参与时，他们就会立刻返回到所处的社会环境中来。他们还可以通过身体姿态、身体语言、衣着符号等方式保持符合可支配介入活动的印象。

Inemuri in the workplace is a case in point. In principle, attentiveness and active participation are expected at work, and falling asleep creates the impression of lethargy and that a person is shirking their duties. However, it is also viewed as the result of work-related exhaustion. It may be excused by the fact that meetings are usually long and often involve simply listening to the chair’s reports. The effort made to attend is often valued more than what is actually achieved. As one informant told me: “We Japanese have the Olympic spirit – participating is what counts.”

工作场所中的小憩就是一个很好的例证。原则上，工作场所要求员工态度专注、主动参与，在工作场所睡觉则会给人留下性情倦怠、逃避责任的印象。然而，打瞌睡也会是勤奋工作的产物。在要求听众被动聆听主席台上冗长报告的会议上，听众非常容易入睡。来参加会议本身比会议能取得什么成果更加重要。一位消息人士告诉我：“我们日本人都有奥林匹克精神——重在参与。”

Diligence, which is expressed by working long hours and giving one’s all, is highly valued as a positive moral trait in Japan. Someone who makes the effort to participate in a meeting despite being exhausted or ill demonstrates diligence, a sense of responsibility and their willingness to make a sacrifice. By overcoming physical weaknesses and needs, a person becomes morally and mentally fortified and is filled with positive energy. Such a person is considered reliable and will be promoted. If, in the end, they succumb to sleep due to exhaustion or a cold or another health problem, they can be excused and an “attack of the sleep demon” can be held responsible.

日本人认为，勤奋是指长时间尽全力工作，这是一种得到高度推崇的美德。在筋疲力尽或者疾病缠身的情况下仍然参加会议的人表现出的是勤奋态度、责任感和自我牺牲精神。通过克服身体不适和需求，一个人就能在道德和精神意义上变得更加强大，并且充满正能量。人们会觉得这类人忠诚可靠，应当晋升。如果他们因为过度劳累、患上感冒或其他疾病而酣然入睡，人们会原谅他们，并且打趣地说，这是因为“睡魔”袭来的缘故。

Moreover, modesty is also a highly valued virtue. Therefore, it is not possible to boast about one’s own diligence – and this creates the need for subtle methods to achieve social recognition. Since tiredness and illness are often viewed as the result of previous work efforts and diligence, inemuri – or even feigning inemuri by closing one’s eyes – can be employed as a sign that a person has been working hard but still has the strength and moral virtue necessary to keep themselves and their feelings under control.

另外，日本社会也高度崇尚谦虚这项美德。因此，没人会四处吹嘘他工作勤奋–此时就需要采取某种巧妙的方法获得社会认可。由于劳累和疾病往往是由于过去的努力工作所致，这时可以小憩一番–甚至闭上眼睛假装小憩–从而表明该人一直在努力工作，虽然他现在正在打瞌睡，但却仍然具有控制自身及情绪的力量和道德。

Thus, the Japanese habit of inemuri does not necessarily reveal a tendency towards laziness. Instead, it is an informal feature of Japanese social life intended to ensure the performance of regular duties by offering a way of being temporarily ‘away’ within these duties. And so it is clear: the Japanese don’t sleep. They don’t nap. They do inemuri. It could not be more different.

因此，日本人的小憩习惯不能和懒惰划等号。恰恰相反，它是日本社会生活中的一种非正式行动，目的在于通过暂时“离开”职责而确保日常职责得以履行。很明显：日本人不是在睡觉，也不是在打瞌睡，他们正在小憩。这三者之间的区别可大了去了。