跟讀練習: Why Do We Actually Need Sleep?? - 通過影片學習英語口語

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Sleeping.

正在睡覺。

Every day you go to your bed, lie down and do nothing.

你每天都上床躺著，什麼也不做。

For like eight hours.

大概有八個小時了。

This is stupid.

The time you spend doing literally nothing could be spent on so many other things.

Like eating, drinking, exercise, getting a job, spending time remembering that time you accidentally called your teacher mum.

But instead you're doing this.

Why?

Why haven't we figured out a way to not need to do this?

What does sleep even do?

And why do you feel sleepy?

What is sleepy?

Two things.

First is the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is just your body clock.

It relies on light to get an idea of what time it is.

When it's day, it's chillin'.

But when it becomes night though, your retinas in your eyes see this

and then send messages to your body clock and it goes.. bed and then allows the release of melatonin,

which pretty much tells the brain it's nighttime.

And second is adenosine.

The heck is that?

Well all of your cells use this thing called ATP as energy, but as your body uses it, adenosine accumulates.

This accumulation increases sleep pressure, which makes you more tired.

So you finally climb into your bed and then you just lie there?

Don't worry, even

Even though you might feel like you're just lying there like a useless blob,

your part of the brain called the hypothalamus is getting ready to send

you into your dreamy state where you ride unicorns and eat fluffy clouds.

During the day, your brain is constantly sending messages using all these different chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters,

but it's being extra sure to use these special neurotransmitters to stay awake.

But as your sleepiness builds,

it gets to a point where it lets this thing out of the cage the ventrolateral preoptic area inside the hypothalamus,

or VELPO for short.

What this does is blocks all the systems in the brain

that are making sure that it's using these neurotransmitters to stay awake, and thus gets you to fall asleep.

So now you're sleeping like a baby.

But again, why have we even evolved to need this absolute waste of time?

We'll get to that.

But first, what's happening while you're asleep?

It's called the sleep cycle, which you've probably heard of before.

And there's four parts to it.

First is stage one.

This is when you're barely asleep.

Your awareness goes down and muscle activity relaxes.

This is also the stage where this happens.

That was what the pros call a hypnic jerk.

So why does your own body give you a jump scare?

Well, researchers think that it could be your brain reacting to a sudden relaxation in the muscles and because it's stupid,

it interprets that as we're falling and jolts your muscles to double check.

But they aren't actually certain, so it could be something else.

Anyway, next is stage two, which is a light sleep.

This is where your heart rate slows, your body temperature decreases, and muscles relax even more.

But two other really interesting things happen here.

Sleep spindles, which are short bursts of brain activity, and K -complexes, which are big distinctive brainwaves.

Why?

Well, they seem to both have roles in protecting sleep and memory processing, but again, meh.

Then you get to stage three, deep sleep.

This is where activity is at its lowest, and your body takes advantage of that, increasing growth hormone secretion, tissue repair,

immune function support, and metabolic regulation.

It also takes that opportunity to use the glymphatic systems, which is a nerdy way of saying a waste clearing system for the brain as well.

And this is the stage where you're the most dead to the world.

You're just there, in your bed, catching your Z's, sleeping like a baby.

BOOM!

REM sleep.

All of a sudden your heart rate starts going up and down, brain activity jumps, and irregular breathing increases as well.

REM, or rapid eye movement, is where the most vivid of your dreams happen.

And yes, it's called rapid eye movement because your eyes are literally darting around while you sleep.

But, if you're having a dream that you're running away from the scariest thing you can imagine,

a job application, why don't you move in real life?

It's called REM -a -tonia.

Pretty much, your brainstem literally stops messages going from your brain to your skeletal muscles, while other messages for vital muscles such as your heart,

lungs and yes your eyes are allowed through.

But on the odd occasion it goes over time and is still stopping you from moving even when you wake up.

That's what causes sleep paralysis.

The thing where you're awake but you can't move.

And yes, because of this mix -up, dreamlike processes can still intrude your awakeness.

Hence why you sometimes can start hallucinating really scary things.

Like that job application.

Then you finish the cycle.

So, you do it again.

This whole cycle takes roughly 90 minutes.

But that can vary depending on the person.

And they're not even lengths either.

Usually, earlier in the night you actually get more deep sleep, whereas later in the night you get more REM sleep.

But then you wake up in the morning and think to yourself, why?

Think about it though, every night you're putting yourself in a state where you are extremely vulnerable to enemies, you can't eat, you can't drink,

you can't care for your children, you can't look for a girlfriend, you can't even fill out that job application.

And yet evolution has gone to extreme lengths in order to preserve this strange routine.

And when I say extreme, I mean extreme.

Think about dolphins for instance.

They need air to survive, but if they slept they would drown.

So they evolved to not need sleep right?

Nope.

They evolved so that to sleep they shut down half of their brain

and let that side sleep and just use the awake side and then just swap it over.

And not just dolphins, but many birds also do this too.

So why hasn't evolution just gotten rid of it altogether?

Why is it so persistent on keeping sleeping?

Well, we do know the important stuff that sleep does do.

100

First, the brain needs maintenance, and it can't do it as effectively while it's awake.

101

It's like trying to do maintenance in a warehouse.

102

It's much easier to do it while it's empty rather than when it's full of customers.

103

Second, the brain also needs to manage and sort what it learnt that day.

104

Organise memories, new skills and get rid of old ones.

105

Again, it seems that it can't do it as effectively while it's awake.

106

And third is body repair.

107

Yet again, it does it better when it's asleep.

108

But I still have a problem with that.

109

Why do we need to actually be asleep?

110

As in unconscious?

111

We could have just evolved to be able to repair, sort and maintain ourselves while awake.

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And yet evolution has been determined to keep it,

113

and has clearly decided that it's worth the risk of not being conscious for 8 hours every day, than not to sleep at all.

114

And that's the real mystery of sleep that no one has been able to really answer.

115

Why do we really need sleep?

116

And if you want to get a good night's sleep,

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a little birdie told me that hitting the subscribe button and show it two cold sides to your pillow for a week.

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

這節口語課以影片“Why Do We Actually Need Sleep??”為素材。影片中反覆出現的詞有：sleep, brain, awake, muscle, asleep。這段影片共有 118 個句子、1262 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 7:47。說話人語速自然，每分鐘約 162 個詞，接近日常對話。 84% 的單詞屬於英語最常用的 3,000 詞，其餘的詞建議在練習前先學一下。全部 118 個句子中有 19 個是問句，適合練習疑問語調和簡短回答。

影片中的重點詞彙

影片中 15 個值得學習的單詞，附發音和釋義：

單詞	發音	釋義
awake 動詞	/əˈweɪk/	醒, 醒來 /醒來
muscle 名詞	/ˈmʌs.əl/	肌肉, 筋肉
asleep 形容詞	/əˈsliːp/	睡著的, 睡著的
evolution 名詞	/ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/	演變 /演變, 變遷 /變遷
repair 動詞	/ˈɹiːpɛɚ/	修理
sudden 形容詞	/ˈsʌd.ən/	突然, 急劇 /急劇
rapid 形容詞	/ˈɹæp.ɪd/	快, 迅速
scary 形容詞	/ˈskɛə.ɹi/	恐怖
relax 動詞	/ɹɪˈlæks/	鬆開 /鬆開, 放鬆 /放鬆
sleepy 形容詞	/ˈsliːpi/	昏昏欲睡, 睏 /困
dolphin 名詞	/ˈdɑlf.ɪn/	海豚, 海豬 /海豬
cloud 名詞	/ˈklaʊ̯d/	йүн, 雲 /雲
mystery 名詞	/ˈmɪs.t(ə.)ɹi/	謎 /謎, 謎團 /謎團
awareness 名詞	/əˈwɛɹ.nəs/	意識 /意識, 覺悟 /覺悟
skill 名詞	/skɪl/	技巧, 技能

影片中出現的短語動詞

單詞	發音	釋義
figure out 動詞		弄清楚
fill out 動詞	/fɪl ˈaʊt/	填, 填寫 /填寫
go down 動詞		下降, 下去
go up 動詞		上昇 /上升, 上去
lie down 動詞		偃, 躺下
wake up 動詞	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	醒, 醒來 /醒來

值得反覆跟讀的句子

影片中簡短而完整的句子，可以直接用在日常對話裡：

But first, what's happening while you're asleep?
This is when you're barely asleep.
The thing where you're awake but you can't move.
Why do we need to actually be asleep?
Why do we really need sleep?

影片中的語法

說話人最常用的結構，並附上影片中的原話：

結構	影片中的用法
現在完成時 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去發生但與現在仍有關聯的事	haven't we figured · have we even evolved · you've probably heard
定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物	nucleus, which is · pressure, which makes · two, which is
被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的	could be spent · are allowed

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 28 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 you're, can't, don't。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

“th” 音: breathe /bɹiːð/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, occasion /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, tissue /ˈtɪʃ.(j)u/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/
長單詞——注意重音位置: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, irregular /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/

中文母語者容易讀錯的音：

/v/ — 不要讀成 /w/，上齒輕觸下唇: evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, vital /ˈvaɪtəl/, vary /ˈvɛəɹi/, vulnerable /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/
詞尾子音 — 要讀清楚，後面不要加母音: awake /əˈweɪk/, asleep /əˈsliːp/, evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, clock /klɑk/, rapid /ˈɹæp.ɪd/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的區別: relax /ɹɪˈlæks/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, roughly /ˈɹʌf.li/, rely /ɹɪˈlaɪ/, vulnerable /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/

如何用這段影片練習

先完整聽一遍影片，不要開口，記下不認識的單詞。
先用 0.75 倍速逐句跟讀，熟練之後再回到正常速度。
錄下自己的聲音並與原聲對比，特別注意 awake, muscle, asleep 這類單詞。

什麼是跟讀法？

跟讀法 (Shadowing) 是一種有科學依據的語言學習技巧，最初開發用於專業口譯員的培訓，並由多語言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。這個方法簡單而強大：您在聽英語母語原聲的同時立即大聲重複——就像是一個延遲1-2秒緊跟說話者的影子。與被動聽力或語法練習不同，跟讀法強迫您的大腦和口腔肌肉同時處理並模模擬實的講話模式。研究表明它能顯著提高發音準確性，語調，節奏，連讀，聽力理解和口語流利度——使其成為雅思口語備考和真實英語交流最有效的方法之一。

影子跟讀法: 閱讀完整分步指南 →

跟讀練習: Why Do We Actually Need Sleep?? - 通過影片學習英語口語

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