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人们常说电灯和手机让我们睡得更晚、更少，但这一说法其实很难直接证明，因为大多数研究只是在某个时间点比较不同人群。阿根廷和美国的研究团队则从2012年到2024年，持续跟踪阿根廷北部原住民 Toba/Qom 的多个社区，请156人佩戴手腕设备，记录了超过12,000次睡眠。期间，农村社区在2016年后陆续通电，之后网络和智能手机也普及开来。据《自然》的简讯，农村居民通电后每晚平均少睡约35分钟，入睡时间也推迟了。不过研究者提醒，电灯和电子设备本身不能完全解释这些变化，更广泛的生活方式变化可能也起了作用。文章按“常见看法—研究方法—发现—原因的边界”展开，阅读时可留意 however、although、even 等词如何表达转折和限定。

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Many people believe that electric lights and phones keep us awake later, but this idea is surprisingly hard to prove. Most studies compare different groups at one moment in time. A team of scientists in Argentina and the United States did something much rarer. They followed the same communities for 12 years while their lives were changing.

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许多人认为电灯和手机让我们睡得更晚，但这个说法出人意料地难以证明。大多数研究只是在某一时刻比较不同的人群。阿根廷和美国的一个科学家团队做了一件少见得多的事：他们在这些社区生活发生变化的12年里，一直跟踪同一批社区。

The study looked at the Toba/Qom, an Indigenous people in northern Argentina. Some of their communities are in the countryside, where homes had no electricity at first. Others live in semi-urban areas near towns and have had electricity for much longer. Between 2012 and 2024, researchers visited them many times and asked 156 people to wear small devices on their wrists. The devices recorded more than 12,000 periods of sleep, so the team did not have to depend on people’s memories.

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这项研究关注的是 Toba/Qom，一个生活在阿根廷北部的原住民族群。他们的一些社区位于乡村，起初家里没有电；另一些社区位于城镇附近的半城市化地区，通电时间要早得多。2012年至2024年间，研究人员多次走访这些社区，请156人在手腕上佩戴小型设备。这些设备记录了超过12,000段睡眠，因此研究团队不必依赖人们的记忆。

During those years, electricity reached the rural communities after 2016. Later, the internet and smartphones also spread. According to a summary in the journal Nature, people in the rural communities slept an average of 35 minutes less per night after they gained electricity. Their sleep also started later in the evening.

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在这些年里，农村社区在2016年之后通了电。后来，互联网和智能手机也普及开来。据《自然》期刊上的一篇简讯，农村社区的居民在通电后每晚平均少睡35分钟，他们晚上开始睡觉的时间也推迟了。

Losing 35 minutes may not sound serious, but it happens night after night. Over a week, it adds up to about four hours. The change also came quickly. The researchers say the shifts they saw within one decade may mirror the way human sleep probably changed across the whole 20th century and the early 21st century.

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少睡35分钟听起来也许并不严重，但这是每晚都在发生的。一周下来，累计约四个小时。而且这种变化来得很快。研究人员表示，他们在十年内看到的变化，可能反映了整个20世纪和21世纪初人类睡眠大概经历的变化。

However, the team is careful about the cause. In an earlier version of the paper, they wrote that electric light and digital devices alone could not fully explain the changes in sleep timing. Even the semi-urban groups, who already had electricity, began going to sleep later. The researchers suggest that broader changes in daily life, as the communities became more modern, may also play a part.

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不过，研究团队对原因的判断很谨慎。在论文的早期版本中，他们写道，仅凭电灯和电子设备并不能完全解释入睡时间的变化。即使是早已通电的半城市化群体，也开始越来越晚睡。研究人员认为，随着社区日益现代化，日常生活中更广泛的变化可能也起了作用。

This kind of study is valuable because it watches a change while it is happening. Scientists cannot travel back in time to measure how people slept before electric lights spread across Europe or North America. Communities that are going through a similar change today can show part of that story, although one group of people cannot represent everyone.

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这类研究很有价值，因为它在变化发生的过程中进行观察。科学家无法回到过去，测量电灯在欧洲或北美普及之前人们是怎样睡觉的。如今正在经历类似变化的社区可以呈现这段历史的一部分，尽管一个群体并不能代表所有人。

The full results were published in the journal Current Biology. For now, the study offers rare direct evidence that when the night becomes brighter and busier, people may give up some of their rest.

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完整的研究结果发表在《当代生物学》期刊上。就目前而言，这项研究提供了少见的直接证据：当夜晚变得更明亮、更忙碌时，人们可能会因此牺牲一部分休息时间。

新闻来源

• Nature · Sleep declines in rural communities after electricity arrives (23 Oct 2026)
• Current Biology · Longitudinal study of Toba/Qom communities reveals delay and shortening of sleep in real time (2026)
• bioRxiv · Modern Times: Longitudinal Study of Toba/Qom Communities Reveals Delay and Shortening of Sleep in Real-Time (preprint, 2026)

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