An analysis of 36 years of studies by the University of Pennsylvania suggests temporarily depriving patients of sleep can be effective in the short-term.

宾夕法尼亚大学实施了一项历时36年的试验，得出的结论显示减少抑郁症患者的睡眠时间在短期内可缓解抑郁症。

Their research, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, looked at 66 studies on people with depression who were deprived of sleep in a clinical setting.

这项研究发表在《临床精神医学杂志》（Journal of Clinical Psychiatry）上，共进行了66次，研究对象为抑郁症患者，实验在临床条件下控制了患者的睡眠时间。

Sleep deprivation was found to temporarily improve symptoms in 50 per cent of patients. The review also found that partial sleep deprivation (three to four hours' sleep, followed by 20 to 21 hours of staying awake) and total sleep deprivation (being deprived of sleep for 36 hours) were equally effective.

减少睡眠时间在短期内缓解了一半患者的病情。将睡眠时间减少到3到4小时（其余20到21小时都是清醒的），和让患者在36小时内保持清醒的效果相同。

The results were the same whether or not the participants were also taking medication. Patients reported improvement in as little as 24 hours.

患者有无服药都不会影响实验。但是疗效只持续了24小时。

The idea that depression can be helped by sleep deprivation has a long history.

减少睡眠时间能够缓解抑郁症的方法并不是最近才发现的。

Nearly 200 years ago, a German psychiatrist, Johann Christian August Heinroth, successfully experimented with it as a treatment for what he described as 'melancholia', while 'wake therapy' — a combination of long periods of wakefulness interjected with long recovery 'sleeps' — is a technique used by some U.S. psychiatrists and sleep doctors to help treat chronic depression.

大概两百年前，德国一位名叫约翰·克瑞斯宸·阿古斯特·赫恩瑞斯的精神科医生就成功做了实验，证明抑郁症可以通过减少睡眠时间得以治疗。而美国众多精神科医生使用的是“清醒治疗法”，让患者保持长时间的清醒后进行长时间的修复睡眠，以此来治疗慢性抑郁症。

However, the researchers involved in the latest study say that it is a temporary solution and more work needs to be done to identify exactly how sleep deprivation helps depression.

但是，最近的实验发现，这种方法只是短暂性的，要弄明白睡眠缺失是如何缓解抑郁症还需要很多工作。

One theory is that people with depression have disturbed circadian rhythms — the body's 'internal clock' — and skipping a sleep cycle can reset this and temporarily relieve symptoms.

有种说法是抑郁症患者的生物钟混乱，长时间保持清醒可调整生物钟，暂时缓解病症。.

Commenting on the research, Dr Nik Gkampranis, a consultant psychiatrist and sleep specialist at Spire Healthcare, says: ‘Many people with depression have more REM sleep — where your brain is more active and you tend to dream vividly — than those without the condition.

精神科咨询师、睡眠专家尼克·科姆比瑞恩医生在尖端医疗中心（Spire Healthcare）对这项实验做出了评价：“很多抑郁症患者夜间做梦时眼睛会快速移动，这说明他们的大脑比非抑郁症患者更加活跃、做梦更频繁。

‘Evidence also suggests that this is only a temporary fix, so if it is implemented as a therapy, I’d advise it to be used in conjunction with other treatments, for example antidepressants or CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy).’

实验也表明这种治疗方法不具有长期效果，如果要落实这种方法，我建议同时使用其他方法，比如服用抗抑郁药、进行意识行为治疗。”

（翻译：阿忙）