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Almost all new parents struggle to get enough sleep while caring for their newborns.
几乎所有的新父母在照顾新生儿时都很难获得充足的睡眠。
For some penguin parents, though, periods of sleep are especially short.
然而，对于一些企鹅父母来说，睡眠时间尤其短。
Penguins are birds that cannot fly but use their wings for swimming.
企鹅是不会飞但用翅膀游泳的鸟。
They live in or near the Antarctic.
它们生活在南极或南极附近。
Researchers recently found that Chinstrap penguins only sleep for about four seconds at a time in order to protect their eggs and newborn chicks.
研究人员最近发现，为了保护蛋和新生的幼崽，帽带企鹅一次只睡大约四秒钟。
They do this thousands of times throughout the day.
它们一天要这样做上千次。
A study on the findings recently appeared in the publication Science.
一篇关于这一发现的研究论文最近发表在《科学》杂志上。
The short "microsleeps" total around 11 hours each day.
短暂的“微睡眠”每天累积时长大约11个小时。
The microsleeps appear to be enough to keep the parents going for many weeks.
这种微睡眠似乎足以让企鹅父母维持好几个星期。
Niels Rattenborg is a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany.
尼尔斯·拉滕伯格是德国马克斯·普朗克生物智能研究所的睡眠研究员。
He helped write the new study.
他帮助撰写了这篇新研究论文。
He said these penguins blink "… their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time."
他说，这种企鹅眨眼“……它们的眼睛睁开又闭上，它们每天24小时不停地眨眼，要坚持好几周。”
"What's surprising is that they're able to function okay and successfully raise their young," he said.
他说：“令人惊讶的是，它们能够正常运转，并成功地抚养幼崽。”
Chinstrap penguins usually lay their eggs in November in nests made up of small rocks.
帽带企鹅通常在11月在由小岩石构造的巢中产卵。
As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting responsibilities.
与许多其他种类的企鹅一样，交配的企鹅共同承担养育子女的责任。
One parent usually watches the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals.
通常父母中的一方独自照看蛋和雏鸟，而另一方则出去捕鱼，与家人共同食用。
Adult penguins do not face many natural predators in the mating season.
成年企鹅在交配季节不会遇见很多天敌。
But large birds called brown skuas eat the penguin eggs and small chicks.
但是一种叫贼鸥的大型鸟类吃企鹅蛋和小雏鸟。
Other adult penguins may also try to steal the small rocks from nests.
其他成年企鹅也可能会试图偷走筑巢用的小石头。
So, penguin parents must always be on guard.
因此，企鹅父母必须时刻保持警惕。
For the first time, scientists followed the sleeping behavior of Chinstrap penguins in an Antarctic mating colony.
科学家首次在南极的一个交配群体中跟踪观察了帽带企鹅的睡眠行为。
They did this by attaching devices that measure brain waves.
他们通过安装测量脑电波的设备来做到这一点。
They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica.
他们在南极洲海岸外的乔治王岛上，用11天的时间收集了14只成年企鹅的数据。
Won Young Lee is a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute.
李元英是韩国极地研究所的生物学家。
He thought of the idea for the study when he saw mating penguins often blinking their eyes and possibly sleeping during his long days of field observations.
当他在漫长的野外观察中发现交配的企鹅经常眨眼和可能在睡觉时，他产生了进行这项研究的想法。
But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm the animals were sleeping.
但研究小组需要记录脑电波来确认这些动物是否在睡觉。
"For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions," he said.
他说：“对于这些企鹅来说，微睡眠有一定的恢复功能”。
He added that they would not survive without it.
他补充说，没有微睡眠，他们将无法生存。
The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the mating season.
研究人员没有收集除交配季节以外的睡眠数据。
But they suspect that the penguins may sleep for longer periods at other times of the year.
但他们怀疑，企鹅在一年中的其他时间可能会睡更长的时间。
Paul-Antoine Libourel is a sleep researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France.
保罗-安托万·利布雷尔是法国里昂神经科学研究中心的睡眠研究员。
He also helped write the study.
他也帮助撰写了这篇研究论文。
He said scientists do not yet know if the gains from microsleep are the same as gains from longer periods of time.
他说，科学家还不知道微睡眠的益处是否与长时间睡眠的益处相同。
Scientists also do not know if other kinds of penguins sleep in such short periods.
科学家也不知道其他种类的企鹅是否也会睡这么短的时间。
Researchers have documented a few other animals with special sleeping adaptations.
研究人员还记录了其他几种具有特殊睡眠适应能力的动物。
For example, frigatebirds can sleep with one half of their brain at a time while flying.
例如，军舰鸟在飞行时可以进行半脑睡眠。
But researchers say the Chinstrap penguin microsleeps appear to be a new extreme.
但研究人员表示，帽带企鹅的微睡眠似乎是一个新的极端。
Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart studies penguins at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
丹尼尔·帕兰霍斯·齐特巴特在马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔海洋研究所研究企鹅。
He was not involved in the study.
他没有参与这项研究。
He noted that penguins mate in crowded colonies and their predators are around at the same time.
他指出，企鹅在拥挤的群体中交配的同时，它们的捕食者也在附近。
He described microsleeping as "an amazing adaptation" that permits the penguins to be nearly always on guard.
他将微睡眠描述为“一种令人惊叹的适应能力”，这使得企鹅几乎可以时刻保持警惕。
I'm Gregory Stachel.
格雷戈里·施塔赫尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
