Reading techniques

UNIT 4

READING TECHNIQUES

I

The text below deals with recent research into sleep. Read it paying attention to the italisized link-words. Translate them into Russian.

Much research has been carried out in recent years into sleep. We know a great deal about the mechanics of sleep and we are beginning to know about the biochemical changes involved. However, we are still a long way from finding out answers to such questions as how much sleep a person needs. While the physiological basis of sleep remains very much a matter for conjecture (догадка) we do nevertheless have considerable evidence (данные) on how much sleep people obtain. Despite this we need to know more about the kinds of effect that sleep deprivation (лишение) causes. In spite of considerable effort devoted to investigations why we sleep, there is still disagreement in this area. The fact that sleep deprivation causes numerous harmful (вредный) effects suggests that the body requires sleep to restore (восстанавливать) itself. However, more research is needed to determine whether this is so or whether sleep is the result of adaptation to the environment. There is also the possibility that these two alternatives may not be incompatible (несовестимый).

TEXT STUDY

III

Before reading the text on sleep decide whether the following statements are true or false:

a)  sleep is a passive state;

b)  people breathe slowly and regularly throughout the night;

c)  everybody dreams during the night;

d)  all sleepers remember their dreams.

Read the text to see whether you were right. Choose the title that best suits it.

a)  Two types of sleep.

b)  The mystery of sleep.

c)  The investigation of sleep.

We may not give it a moment's thought, but most of us will probably spend the third of our lives asleep. Yet the nature of sleep has puzzled mankind for thousands of years; it is only in the last quarter (четверть) of a century that researchers have made scientific attempts to investigate this world, trying to find out why some people have enormous difficulty falling asleep, while others find it impossible to stay awake. Far from being a passive state, sleep is a remarkably active one. While the sleeper is outwardly calm, the electrical activity of the brain never stops. As the sleep becomes deeper and deeper, the brain-waves become larger and more spread out.

While the sleeper still thinks thoughts and moves occasionally, the metabolic processes slow down and the heartbeat drops until deep sleep is reached.

Every day every human being experiences two kinds of sleep that alternate rhythmically throughout the entire sleep period. The discovery of the two kinds of sleep occurred almost accidentally at the University of Chicago. In 1952 Dr. Kleitman became interested in the slow rolling eye movements that accompany sleep onset (начало) and decided to look for these eye movements throughout the night to determine whether they were related to the depth or quality of sleep. An entirely new kind of eye movement was noticed at certain times during night, the eyes began to dart (быстро двигаться) about furiously beneath the closed lids (веки).

Dr. Kleitman coined the term "REM" (for Rapid - Eye - Movement sleep) to define the phenomenon he and his collegues observed. The other kind eventually acquired the name "NREM" sleep. The "NREM" state is often called "quiet sleep", because of the slow, regular breathing, the general absence of body movement, and the slow, regular brain activity shown in the EEG. The body is not paralyzed during NREM sleep. The first sleep of the night is always NREM sleep, which must progress through its various stages before the first REM period occurs. REM sleep, which has been called "active sleep" is an entirely different state of existence. At the onset of REM sleep the sleeper's body is still immobile, but we can see small, convulsive twitches (подергивания) of his face and fingertips (кончики пальцев)

Experts speculate that REM sleep protects us from acting out our dreams and hurting ourselves, and that it is not really sleep at all, but a state in which the subject is awake, but paralyzed and hallucinating. The sleeper's breathing becomes irregular — very fast, then slow — he may even appear to stop breathing for several seconds. If you gently pull back the eyelids the sleeper seems to be actually looking at something. Cerebral blood flow and brain temperature soar to new heights, but large muscles of the body are completely paralyzed: arms, legs, and trunk cannot move.

The NREM-REM cycle varies from 70 to 110 minutes, but averages around 90 min. In the early part of the night sleep is dominated by the NREM state, but as the night progresses, the periods of quiet sleep become shorter and the REM episodes longer. The first REM period lasts 10 min., but by early morning they can last as long as an hour. So we are believed to go into REM sleep and dream roughly every 90 m, all night long. So most of us sleep in two distinct ways: REM sleep, when we dream, and "quiet" sleep when we simply sleep.

XII

DREAM REPAIRWORK

Even if we don't yet know how to help people change through their dreams, we can profit by studying how their dreams are influenced by the circumstances (обстоятельства) of their waking lives. One recent survey, for example, asked people whether the amount of time they spent dreaming at night was influenced by what they were feeling during the day. Out of 271 women, 80 percent said there were times when they were aware of dreaming more than their usual amount, and 47 percent said there were times that they were dreaming less. The women dreamed more, they said, during "times of undue stress" and "blue and upset moods" and less "when things were going especially well". This may mean only that when we are upset we are likely to sleep more lightly, and so are more likely to awaken and become aware of our dreams. However, it is also probable that in times of stress, dreams seem to have more work to do in resolving our problems and are thus more salient (характерный) and memorable. When things are going well by day, we appear to have less need to dream about such weighty matters.

If dreams do help us work through tensions and problems from the previous day, then we should wake up feeling better than when we went to sleep. This mood regulation function of dreaming has been confirmed by Milton Kramer and Thomas Roth, working at the university of Cincinnati. Kramer and Roth studied the moods of some subjects before and after they went to sleep. They found that in cases in which a person's mood improved after sleep it was usually related to specific aspects of what they had dreamed.

XVI

Choose the appropriate form while reading the passage.

Even though investigators do not yet completely understand dreams, modern methods of study have answered a great many questions about them. Here are some questions that are known (to have been answered, to be answered).

Does everyone dream? Although many people do not recall dreams in the morning, "recallers" and "nonrecallers" appear (to dream, to have dreamt) equally often. Two hypotheses have been proposed to account for the differences in recall of dreams. One is that nonrecallers are believed (to be having, to have) an inherent (врожденный) difficulty in recalling dreams (Lewis and others, 1966). The other hypothesis is that some people awaken more readily in the midst of REM and thus report more dreams. In other words, the reason we remember dreaming is that we happened (to be waking up, to wake up) while we were dreaming. Regardless of the fate of these hypotheses everyone is certain (to have dreamt, to dream).

How long do dreams last? Occasionally dreams seem (to have been, to be) instantaneous (мгновенный). However, when subjects are asked (to be described, to describe) or panto­mime a dream, the time it takes for them to do so is directly proportional to the length of time they were in REM sleep before being awakened (Dement and Wodperf, 1958).

Do people know when they are dreaming? Subjects arc likely (to train, to be trained) within one night to discriminate between periods of dreaming and non-dreaming. One test is to have the subject hold a switch in one hand while sleeping, with instructions to close it while dreaming (Salamy, 1970).

XX

1. Read the text and identify the main topic of the passage:

a)  the effects of lack of sleep;

b)  sleep and body temperature;

c)  how easily people can get used to working at night;

d)  the effect of automation on working efficiency.

SLEEP

We all know that the normal human daily cycle of activity is of some 7-8 hours' sleep alternating with some 16-17 hours’ wakefulness and that, broadly speaking, the sleep normally coincides (совпадать) with the hours of darkness. Our present concern is with how easily and to what extent (до какой степени) this cycle can be modified.

The question is no more academic one. The ease for ex­ample, with which people can change from working in the day to working at night is a question of growing importance where automation calls insistently for round-the-clock working of machines. It normally takes from five days to one week for a person to adapt to a reversed routine of sleep and wakefulness, sleeping during the day and working at night. Unfortunately, it is often the case in industry that shifts are changed every week; a person may work from 12 midnight to 8 a. m. one week, 8 a. m. to 4 p. m. the next, and 4 p. m. to 12 midnight the third and so on. This means that no sooner has he got used to one routine than he has to change to another, so that much of this time is spent neither working nor sleeping very efficiently.

One answer would seem to be longer periods on each shift a month, or even three months. Recent research by Bonjer (1960) of the Netherlands, however, has shown that people on such systems will revert to their normal habits of sleep and wakefulness during the week-end and that this is quite enough to destroy any adaptation to night work built up during the week.

The only real solution appears to be to hand over the night shift to a corps of permanent night workers whose nocturnal (ночной) wakefulness may persist through all week­ends and holidays. An interesting study of the domestic life and health of night-shift workers was carried out by Brown in 1957. She found a high incidence (число) of disturbed sleep, digestive disorder and domestic disruption among those on alternating day and night shifts, but no abnormal occurrence of these symptoms among those on permanent night work.

This latter system then appears to be the best long-term policy, but meanwhile something may be done to relieve (облегчить) the strains of alternate day and night work by selecting those people who can adapt most quickly to the changes of routine. One way of knowing when a person has adapted is by measuring his performance, but this can be laborious. Fortunately, we again have a physiological measure which correlates reasonably well with the behavioral one, (in this case performance at various times of the day or night) and which is easier to take. This is the level of body temperature, as taken by an ordinary clinical thermometer. People engaged in normal daytime work will have a high temperature during the hours of wakefulness and a low one at night; when they change to night work the pattern will only gradually reverse to match the new routine and the speed with which it does so parallels, broadly speaking, the adaptation of the body as a whole, particularly in terms of performance and general alertness (настороженность.). Therefore by taking body temperature at intervals of two hours throughout the period of wakefulness it can be seen how quickly a person can adapt to a reversed routine, and this could be used as a basis for selection. So far, however, such a form of selection does not seem to have been applied in practice.

4. Read the text below, say what is new in it when compared with text "Sleep".

THE SECRETS OP SLEEP

The secrets of sleep were a mystery for centuries simply because there was neither the means (способ) to explore them, nor the need. Only when candles gave way to gaslight, and gas to electricity, when man became able to convert night into day, and double his output by working shifts (смена) round the clock, did people seriously start wondering if sleep could possibly be a waste of time. Our ability to switch night into day is very recent, and it is questionable if we will ever either want or be able to give up our habit of enjoying a good night's sleep. However, a remarkable research project in London has already discovered (обнаружить) a few people who actually enjoy insomnia (бессонница). Even chronic insomniacs often get hours more sleep than they think. But, by placing electric contacts beside the eyes and on the head, it is possible to check their complaint by studying the tiny currents (ток) we generate which reveal (показывать) the different brainwaves of sleep and wakefulness. This has shown that for some people seven or eight hours of sleep a night are quite unnecessary.

A lot of recent work has shown that too much sleep is bad for you, so that if you are fortunate enough to be born with a body which needs only small amount of sleep, you may well be healthier and happier than someone who sleeps longer.

Every attempt to unravel (разгадать) the secrets of sleep, and be precise about its function, raises many problems. The sleeper himself cannot tell what is going on and, even when he wakes, has only a very hazy (неясная) idea of how good or bad a night he has had. The research is expensive and often unpopular, as it inevitably (неизбежно) involves working at night. Only in the last few years have experts come up with theories about the function of sleep and the laws which may govern it.

The real advance in sleep research came in 1937 with the use of the electroencephalogram.

XXI

Read the text and answer the question: what should and should not be done if a child has sleep problems?

Sleep problems are not the same in children as they are in adults. For example, infants and toddlers who are not sleeping well do not complain—their parents do. Young children are usually more unhappy about having to go to bed than about any inability to fall asleep; in fact they are more likely to fight sleep than they are to count sheep. The significance of other sleep symptoms also depends on age. A four-year-old who wets the bed every night probably has no disorder at all. A seven-year-old who does the same has an annoying problem. But a young adult who wets nightly has a genuinely disturbing disorder. Sleepwalking or sleep terrors may have very different psychological significance at different ages. And loud nightly snoring (храпение) in children does not usually have the same cause or require the same treatment as it does in adults.

Since opening our clinic, I have learned a great deal from the hundreds of families whose children I have treated. Most of the parents had received varied and often conflicting advice from family, friends, and health professionals, and most had tried several different approaches in an attempt to improve their children's sleep. Many of them had been told, at some point, simply to let their child cry. Or they were advised to lock the child in his or her room, to let the child sleep with them, to have a parent sleep in the child's room, to change the child's diet, to increase nighttime feedings, to warm the milk, to use a pacifier, to rock their child to sleep, to turn on a light or radio, to drive their child in the car at bedtime, to eliminate a nap, to switch to a water bed, or to give their child sleep medicine. Parents were often told—incorrectly—that there was little they could do but wait for the child to outgrow the problem. Frequently they were unjustly accused of "spoiling" their child, and were made to feel inadequate as parents.

I have found that most of this advice not only doesn't help but will usually make matters worse because it is not based on a full understanding of children's sleep. Fortunately I have been able to gain a much better appreciation of the nature of sleep and sleep disturbances in children, and I have found that the causes of most of these disturbances can be identified fairly readily and then corrected by simple, straightforward techniques.

The most common problem, for example, sleeplessness in young children, has proven to be the easiest to treat: even an infant or toddler who has never slept through the night can begin doing so within a few days with the right assistance from parents. Other problems such as bedwetting, sleepwalking, or sleep terrors need different approaches, but can almost always be alleviated. Only occasional disorders such as narcolepsy require the use of medication. And only very specific conditions such as sleep apnea (остановка дыхания) ever call for surgery.

At our center I work closely with families. With their help I examine the factors responsible for the child's sleep disruption and then, in most cases, work out treatment methods that the parents can carry out by themselves. For the most part it is still the parents who solve their child's sleep problems, and usually quite successfully.

XXII

Read the text, consider the facts described and draw your conclusion.

DREAMS

The fact that it is more difficult to awaken a person from REM than from NREM sleep provides some initial support for Freud's idea that dreams protect sleep. An additional partial test of the Freudian theory is to deprive (лишать) subjects of REM sleep, thus depriving them of dreams. If subjects arc-awakened every time there is an onset of REM, they have a night's sleep without dreams. Early experiments indicated that after such deprivation there was more REM sleep the following night, indicating that there is a kind of "quota" for REM; and when there is less REM sleep one night, more will be required the next. Indirectly, this would support the Freudian theory of dreams as a protector of sleep. However, other findings of sleep and dream studies contradict the interpretation of REM as a protector of sleep. In the first place, REM is prominent (заметный) in infants, when meaningfull dreams are unlikely to occur, and also in lower mammals (млекопитающие). The study of the dreams of older children shows that their dreams reflect the realistic activities of their waking lives and that emotional disturbances occur in their dreams when there are emotional disturbances in their waking lives (Foulkes, 1971).

The only conclusion to be drawn is that the psycho-physiological studies of dreams have given little support to the Freudian theory that the purpose of dreams is to protect sleep.

But from the work done so far, it appears that dreaming serves several cognitive functions: it is measurably involved in mood changes; it seems to provide the energy space for working out problems set aside through days filled with busy activity; and, in general, it offers a kind of workshop for the repair of self-esteem (чувство собственного достоинства) and competence.