新星：什么是梦（2009）

Each night, as we close our eyes and slip away from the waking world,
每当晚上 我们合眼入梦以后
we may enter an even richer one, the elusive realm of dreams.
可能进入更为精彩与迷离的梦境中
I was in a kitchen.
我当时在一个厨房♥
I remember it had really bright colors and a lot of sunshine,
记得梦里色彩明亮 阳光明媚
and I saw a bug on the table,
看到桌子上有个虫子
and I heard it say, "Hamburger, hamburger."
对我叫着 汉堡包 汉堡包
I was riding the subway,
我那时正在搭乘地铁
and I noticed that I could suddenly see into things.
突然发现自己竟然能透视
And there was a young woman, and in her purse she had handcuffs.
接着我透视到一个少♥妇♥手包里的手铐
There were two lanes, so it was a normal motorway,
那是一条双车道的普通高速公路
apart from the fact that all the cars had no people in them.
然而路上的汽车里都空无一人
I'm holding a big glass of milk,
我拿着一大杯牛奶
and there's a head of lettuce in it.
里面有一棵生菜
I don't know anybody who isn't fascinated by dreams.
所有人都着迷于梦
I mean they are outrageous events in our lives.
梦是生活中的天之杰作
They can be bewildering, terrifying, inspiring,
它们令人困惑 使人恐惧亦或启发灵感
but do they mean anything?
但是梦境有意义吗
Are dreams the nonsensical byproduct of a sleeping brain
梦是大脑熟睡时毫无意义的副产品
or a window into our unconscious mind, rich with revelations?
还是启发我们前往潜意识的窗口呢
Why would Mother Nature highly activate your brain,
为什么大自然会高度刺♥激♥你的大脑
paralyze your body, sexually activate you
麻痹你的身体 激发你的性♥欲♥
and force you to watch these things we call dreams?
并逼迫你经历我们所称其为梦的过程
Why? Why would Mother Nature do that?
为什么 为什么大自然要这么做
After more than a century of searching,
通过一个世纪多的调查研究
scientists may finally be nearing an answer,
科学家们对梦开展了细致研究
by literally watching dreams unfold
测试其对人们睡眠
and testing their impact on both our sleeping and waking lives.
和清醒时的影响 他们可能得以找到答案
Dreaming is a process, and not only is it useful,
梦不仅是一个有益的过程
it might be essential for making sense of the world.
且对我们理解世界也可能至关重要
Up next on NOVA: What Are Dreams?
新星即将播出 什么是梦
Major funding for NOVA is provided by the following:
新星节目由以下机构赞助播映
I was walking down this really bizarre hallway,
那时我走在一条十分奇异的走廊上
and every time I would open a door,
每次我打开一扇门
there would just be this blinding light.
就会有刺眼的光亮
So I take off and fly.
我感觉自己飞了起来
And I'm starting to accelerate faster, faster, faster,
我意识自己如同RCA电流中的一粒电子
and I realize I was an electron inside an R.C.A. circuit,
我开始加速 越来越快 越来越快
moving around at the speed of light.
最终以光速作环绕运动
It's dark outside;
外面夜幕降临
kind of raining; very, very scary; ominous.
有点下雨 气氛恐怖 感觉很不祥
And all the water puddles, if you touch them, you catch on fire.
你一触碰雨水坑就会着火
She was very overweight
那个女人非常非常胖
and actually was growing a real beard.
奇怪的是她居然长着胡子
They're eerie, impossible and often, just plain weird.
这些梦怪异可怕 荒诞不经 离奇古怪
Yet some say they've changed the world.
然而有观点说它们改变了世界
Dreams have been responsible for two Nobel prizes,
已有两届诺贝尔获奖的灵感来源于梦中
the invention of a couple of major drugs,
此外 一些重要药物的发明
and innumerable novels, films and works of visual art.
无数小说电影或视觉艺术的创作灵感也都源自梦
Usually they fly through the mind unremembered.
通常梦总是漫游于大脑中无意识的部分
Yet they may be key to understanding the mind itself.
它或许能成为人类认识自我的关键
If you want to understand human nature,the human mind,
如果你想要探究人的心灵与人性
what makes us tick, you need to look at dreams.
以及我们为何如此存在 那你就得着眼于梦
The scientist most associated with dreams is still Sigmund Freud,
西格蒙德·弗洛伊德是研究梦的鼻祖
who saw them as brimming with symbols, mostly sexual.
他认为梦通常充满着性的象征
Such symbols took form as the sleeping brain
这些象征往往从潜意识深处涌现
tried to disguise forbidden urges welling up from its unconscious,
在沉睡的大脑中掩饰那些被禁止的欲望
though even Freud cautioned this kind of thinking could be taken too far.
尽管弗洛伊德也承认这些想法或许过激
At some point,
不过在某些时候
he said you can be too literal.
他认为你大可以按照字面去理解它
You can say every single thing is standing for something sexual.
任何独♥立♥的事物都存在性暗示
And you know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
可你也知道有时候香烟就是香烟
Today, advances in brain science have inspired new theories about dreams,
而在费洛伊德逝世多年之后的今天
building on a discovery made years after Freud's death,
现代科学的进步令研究者可以观察睡眠时的大脑
when science finally got a look at the sleeping brain.
基于这项进步许多新的理论被提了出来
The breakthrough came in 1953,
1953年 梦的研究取得了突破性进展
when Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky
纳撒尼尔·克莱特曼和尤金·阿萨瑞斯基
began recording people's brainwaves as they slept through the night.
开始记录人们睡觉时所发出的脑电波
They put electrodes onto the head
他们在实验者头上放置电极
that could pick up the electrical activity of the brain underneath.
用来记录大脑内部的脑电波活动
And they had known when people are awake,
他们已了解到当人们醒着时
that signal looks very fast and not too interesting—
电♥信♥♥号♥♥看起来非常快也并不十分有趣
it looks almost like noise—
看起来几乎就像是噪音
but that when people fall asleep,
但是当人们睡着时
that you would sometimes have the brain activity
有时你可以看到脑电波开始呈现出
start to go up and down in a slow pattern,
缓慢地上下起伏的图案
and you could then tell whether someone was awake or asleep;
你可以用来鉴别某人是睡着还是醒了
or so they thought.
至少他们是这么认为的
The researchers had assumed sleeping brains were resting brains.
研究者原本认为我们睡着时 大脑应该在休息
But every 90 minutes or so,
但是当他们的实验对象睡着时
as their subjects slumbered, something odd happened.
每隔90分钟左右就会发生奇怪的事情
Their eyes were closed, their head had drooped;
他们的双眼紧闭 脑袋下垂
they didn't answer when you called them by name.
你呼唤他们名字时他们毫无反应
They were clearly asleep
很明显他们已经睡着了
but the electrical activity of the brain said they were awake.
但是大脑的脑电反应却显示他们是清醒的
And it wasn't just their brainwaves that seemed strange.
不仅仅是他们的脑电波显得奇怪
They were sexually aroused.
事实上他们还有性唤起的迹象
Their heart rates and breathing had become irregular.
心率和呼吸变得不规律
Their eyes darted about beneath shut lids.
眼球在闭合的眼睑下快速转动
It was these eye movements that gave the state its name:
眼球这样的运动状态有个特殊的定义
Rapid Eye Movement, or REM sleep.
快速眼球运动 或快速眼动睡眠
But what was REM sleep for?
但是为什么会有快速眼动睡眠呢
The answer seemed to come from the sleepers themselves.
答案似乎来自睡眠者自己
During REM sleep, what the researchers invariably found,
在快速眼动期间 研究者总是发现
when they woke up a subject, was the subject would report,
实验者会在其被唤醒时报告说到
"Hey I'm dreaming, and I just had a vivid dream."
我正在做梦 还是栩栩如生的梦
So was REM sleep dream sleep?
所以快速眼动睡眠就是有梦的睡眠吗
The idea seemed more than plausible
当你关注于快速眼动睡眠
when you considered REM's most dramatic characteristic.
最显著的特征时 这个想法似乎更为可信
Another feature of REM sleep is
快速眼动睡眠的另一个特点便是
that your muscle tone just goes absolutely down to zero.
你的肌肉会完全放松下来
You become functionally paralyzed.
身体机能运行有如瘫痪一般
If you're sitting up in a chair watching TV,
如果你坐在椅子上看电视
you know, and the head nods and falls and you fall asleep,
慢慢地睡着了 脑袋一晃一晃的
that's not REM sleep.
那可不是快速眼动睡眠
If you fall into REM sleep,
如果你处于快速眼动睡眠
you would literally roll off the chair onto the floor,
你将会彻底地从椅子上滚到地上
because your body becomes absolutely relaxed, almost paralyzed,
因为你的身体完全放松 几近瘫痪
in the sense that you can't make your muscles actually work.
这也意味着你的肌肉无法♥正♥常的工作
And it becomes absolutely calm and non-responsive.
肌肉变得完全松弛且无任何反应
Nature, it appeared, had devised a special state of paralysis to
看来是自然设计了这一特殊状态的瘫痪
house our dreams, one in which they remained internal experiences.
使梦完全保留称为内在经历来装载我们的梦
It was a conclusion that seemed impossible to deny,
当研究者们懂得如何切换这种瘫痪状态时
when researchers learned to switch the paralysis off.
其结论似乎已成定论
This cat looks as if it's awake;
这只猫看上去像是醒着的
in fact, it's deep in REM sleep.
事实上它正处在快速眼动睡眠期
This dog appears to be running;
这条狗看上去在跑动
it too is in REM sleep, and, like the cat, dreaming.
它像猫一样也在快速眼动睡眠期中做梦
To see these dreams played out,
为了弄清这些梦是如何演绎的
scientists disabled the part of the brain
在快速眼动睡眠期间
that paralyzes muscles during REM sleep.
科学家们使得控制肌肉瘫痪的大脑无法工作
And what we see when you do this, with cats in particular,
我们发现对猫这样操作以后
is that they can walk around during REM sleep,
他们可以在快速眼动睡眠时四处走动
and their behavior is not random, it's not chaotic.
他们的行为既不随意也不混乱
They're not just doing any old crazy thing.
没有疯狂的行为
They appear to be doing the kinds of behaviors that cats like to do,
他们仿佛就在做猫该做的事情
like stalk a prey, you know, play with a mouse or something.
像是追踪猎物 玩弄一只老鼠之类的
So presumably that's what they dream about when they go into REM sleep,
假设这是他们在速眼动睡眠期间所梦到的
so that's what we think is happening.
那就验证了我们的想法
But what about people?
但是人类是否也这样呢
Could human dreams be watched as well?
人们的梦境是否也能被观察到呢