減肥最好的辦法莫過于少吃多運動，但是對于一些缺乏意志力的人來說，這實在太難了。如果告訴他們，只要多多的睡覺就可以減肥，顯然比任何減肥法都要有吸引力。這種“睡美人減肥法”最近又火了起來。但是專家表示，這種減肥法對身體的害處大大超過益處，減肥效果也沒有人們想的那么好。

If you’re sleeping, you’re not eating. That’s basically the main idea behind the Sleeping Beauty Diet, an increasingly popular weight loss method that encourages people to take sedatives in order to sleep for up to 20 hours a day and skip meals.
如果你在睡覺，你就不會進食。這就是日益受歡迎的“睡美人減肥法”背后的主要想法。“睡美人減肥法”鼓勵人們服用鎮靜劑，這樣就能一天睡上20個小時不用吃飯。

It’s hard to even consider the Sleeping Beauty Diet an actual diet, because it doesn’t prescribe the things you should eat those you should avoid. Instead, it just recommends a lot less eating and whole lot of sleeping. Advocates claim that apart from the obvious “benefit” of reducing calorie intake, this controversial weight-loss method also takes advantage of our bodies’ ability to regulate our metabolism through sleep, which accelerates weight-loss even more. However, there isn’t a lot of science that supports this theory, and even if there were, the risks of undergoing such an extreme regimen still outweigh the benefits by quite a large margin.
把“睡美人減肥法”視為真正的飲食療法比較勉強，因為這種療法并沒有規定你應該吃什么東西，不應該吃什么東西。事實上，這種療法只是建議吃得少睡得多。支持者宣稱，除了減少熱量攝入這樣明顯的“好處”，這種備受爭議的減肥法還能通過睡眠讓身體調節代謝，從而加速減肥進度。然而，并沒有太多科學研究來支持這一理論，即使這種減肥法有效，這種極端的飲食療法的風險仍然大大超過了它的益處。

The most dangerous aspect of the Sleeping Beauty Diet is the use of sedatives, most commonly benzodiazepines like diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax), to force the brain to sleep a lot more than it needs to. No matter how much you enjoy sleeping, it’s unlikely that you can do it naturally for 20 hours out of 24, without the use of medication. This opens you up to all kinds of risks, from possible overdoses to addiction, which can be very hard to beat.
睡美人減肥法最危險的一點就是服用鎮靜劑，一般是像安定和阿普唑侖這種苯二氮平類藥物，強迫大腦睡得比所需的多得多。無論你有多喜歡睡覺，你也不可能在沒有服藥的情況下，一天自然地睡上20個小時。這將讓你面臨各種風險，從服藥過量到藥物成癮，一旦上癮就很難戒掉。

“If people have to rely on medications to produce sleep—particularly [meds] like benzodiazepines, which are addictive—it’s putting the person at risk of addiction,” Dr. Tracey Wade, a professor at the Flinders University School of Psychology, told VICE Broadly. “It’s not only getting the body to sleep more than it needs to; they’ll also have to use higher and higher dosage levels to get the desired effect.”
弗林德斯大學心理學教授特蕾西?韋德博士告訴《Vice》旗下雜志《Broadly》：“如果人們需要依賴藥物才能睡覺——尤其是像苯二氮平類藥物這種會上癮的藥物——這會讓人陷入上癮的危險。這不僅是讓身體的睡眠超過所需，而且人們還不得不服用越來越多的藥量來達到想要的效果。”

But there’s also the effects such long periods of sleep can have on your social life and mental health. Never mind being constantly sedated and disoriented, not having the time or the focus to do virtually anything, but the social aspect of one’s life can be seriously impacted at all. If all you do is sleep, you become increasingly isolated and depression is likely to set in after a while. And, as Dr. Wade points out, “we know that depression also triggers disordered eating. It sounds like it would actually just push people more firmly into the vicious cycle that the eating disorder creates.”
此外，睡這么長時間還會對社交生活和心理健康產生影響。且不提持續服用鎮靜劑會讓你沒有時間也無法集中精神做任何事情，就是一個人的社交生活也會受到嚴重影響。如果你成天都在睡覺，你就會漸漸與外界隔離，抑郁癥也會在不久后悄然降臨。而且，正如韋德博士指出的，“我們知道抑郁癥會引發飲食失調。看來這種療法實際上會把人推向飲食失調造成的惡性循環。”

Believe it or not, the Sleeping Beauty Diet has apparently been around for decades. The first reference of it can be traced back to 1966, in in Jacqueline Susann’s best-selling novel, Valley of the Dolls, where protagonists would take sedatives and check themselves into “Swiss sleep clinics” to lose weight. It is rumored that even Elvis Presley used it during the 70s, when he needed to fit his iconic costumes.
信不信由你，“睡美人飲食療法”早在幾十年前就出現了。首次有人提到這個療法是在1966年，在杰奎琳?蘇珊的暢銷小說《娃娃谷》中，主人公們都會服用鎮靜劑，去“瑞士睡眠診所”減肥。有傳言稱，甚至連貓王也在上世紀70年代用過這種療法，那時候他需要減肥才能穿進自己的標志性演出服。

The Sleeping Beauty Diet has seen a resurgence recently, especially on pro-anorexia blogs and forums, where it’s being promoted as a surefire way to lose weight. One forum user describes it as “perfect for the end of the school semester,” and recommends a 14-day fasting period, on top of an extra 10 hours sleep per day.
睡美人療法最近又重新時興起來，尤其是在支持厭食博客和論壇上，網友們鼓吹這一療法肯定能減肥。一位論壇用戶將其描述為“學期末的完美療法”，而且除了每天多睡10小時外，該網友還建議將節食時間定為14天。

“I just take some really strong pain killers they usually dope me out and I’ll nap for hours. They kind [of] mess with your stomach and curb your hunger a bit so I do it all the time,” another person wrote. “I love sleeping to avoid food. It’s pretty easy for me because I’m tired ninety-nine percent of the time.”
“我每天都服用強效止痛藥，這些藥會讓我昏昏欲睡，讓我一連睡好幾個小時。這種藥會攪亂我的胃，抑制我的食欲，所以我一直服用它們來減肥。”另一位網友寫道，“我喜歡用睡覺的方式來減肥。這對我來說相當容易，因為我99%的時間都感到疲勞。”

Dr. Wade admits that the Sleeping Beauty Diet may seem easy and appealing, especially to someone who is already depressed and caught up in the vicious cycle of an eating disorder, but points out that the results are unlikely to be as impressive as they think. “It’s just like a low calorie diet, which slows down the metabolism anyway. The body will demand more food and it’s very likely that binge eating, in the waking hours, will result,” she says.
韋德博士承認，睡美人療法也許貌似簡單又有吸引力，尤其是對那些已經抑郁并陷入飲食失調的惡性循環的人，但韋德指出，減肥效果很可能不會像人們想的那么好。她說：“這種療法就像低熱量飲食，只是減緩新陳代謝罷了。身體會渴求更多食物，在醒來后，人們極易暴飲暴食。”

英文來源：odditycentral
翻譯&編輯：丹妮