Question

“Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB)” is a term for a group of conditions that can influence normal breathing while people sleep. These include snoring (打鼾), mouth-breathing and sleep apnea. Sleep-disordered breathing can do more than just leave people feeling tired the next day. It can also have an effect on people's health. In children the effects can include behavioral and emotional problems.

In a new study, researchers asked parents about their children's breathing from when they were babies up to about age six. The study involved about eleven thousand children.

Karen Bonuck at the Einstein College of Medicine in New York led the study. She says, “The central finding overall is that sleep-disordered breathing is connected with a fifty percent increase in adverse neurobehavioral (不利的神经行为) outcomes.” She adds that the more serious the breathing problems, the more serious the behavioral issues were likely to be. Other studies have linked sleep with children's behavior, but this study could be able to reject (排除) other possible causes.

The study appears in the journal Pediatrics. It’s estimated one child in ten snores regularly. A smaller number suffer (遭受) from other sleep-disordered breathing.

How well do you sleep? A popular belief is that sleep gets worse with age. But, in another new study, those who reported the fewest problems with the quality (质量) of their sleep were people in their eighties.

Researchers did a telephone survey of more than one hundred fifty thousand American adults. Michael Grandner at the University of Pennsylvania medical school says the starting goal was to prove that aging is connected with increased sleep problems.

The survey did find an increase during middle age, worse in women than men. But except for that, people reported that their sleep quality improved as they got older. At least they felt it did.

Mr. Grandner says, “Even if sleep among older Americans is actually worse than in younger adults, feelings about it still improve with age.”

The findings appear in the journal Sleep. In the study, health problems and sadness were linked with poor sleep. Also, women reported more sleep disturbances and tiredness than men.

But, based on the study, Mr. Grandner says older people who are not sick or depressed should be reporting better sleep. “If they’re not, they need to talk to their doctor. They shouldn’t just take no notice of it,” he says. Nor should their doctor turn a blind eye to it. He says doctors generally dismiss sleep complaints (抱怨) from older adults as a normal part of aging.

57. From the passage we can learn that ______.

A. middle-aged men have more sleep problems than women

B. the older people get, the better the quality of sleep will be

C. doctors don’t take sleep complaints from older adults seriously

D. children suffer more mouth-breathing than other SDB conditions

58. What can we infer from the passage?

A. SDB can bring about serious illness to people.

B. Older adults think they get better sleep than they actually do

C. Ms. Bonuck’s studies have linked sleep with children's behavior.

D. A key period for children’s behavioral development is from 0 to 6.

59. What’s the best title for the passage?

A. Who sleeps Well, who lives Well

B. Who Sleeps Better, the Young or the Old?

C. New Findings on Sleep in Children, Older Adults

D. New Findings on Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Health

Answer 1

 CBC