The Solitude1 of Working Nights

By Shazia Memon

There was a two-year period in my life I refer to as the Dark Ages.2. 在我人生中有那么兩年的時(shí)間，我將其稱之為“黑暗時(shí)期”。Wake-up alarms set for the PM were intentional, not accidental.3. 我把起床鬧鈴定在午后叫醒，這是有意為之，而非無意之舉。And sunset signaled the start of my day, while I fell asleep shortly after dawn.

At most hospitals, newly employed nurses start out working the night shift and transition to days once they reach higher seniority.4. transition: 過渡，轉(zhuǎn)變；seniority: 資歷。While many people have pulled all-nighters at some point in their lives, to live a prolonged nocturnal existence is an entirely different story—only those who experience it can truly understand it.5. all-nighter: 持續(xù)一整夜的活動(dòng)，詞組pull an all-nighter是“通宵熬夜，開夜車”之意；prolonged: 持續(xù)很久的；nocturnal:夜間的。When after-hours are your actual hours, it disrupts your internal biological clock, or circadian rhythm.6. after-hours: 業(yè)余時(shí)間，下班后的時(shí)間；disrupt: 破壞，擾亂；internal biological clock: 體內(nèi)生物鐘；circadian rhythm:（24小時(shí)）晝夜節(jié)律，生理節(jié)律。Thankfully, my “shift-work sleep disorder” only lasted a couple of years.7. shift-work: 輪班制；sleep disorder: 睡眠障礙，睡眠紊亂。But even in that short interim, life was defined by a thoroughly confused circadian cycle.8. interim: 間歇，過渡時(shí)期；circadian cycle:晝夜節(jié)律周期。

If you have ever taken a trip halfway across the globe,you’ve probably experienced some degree of jet-lag9. jet-lag: 生理時(shí)差。.Working the night shift is essentially like living in a perpetual state of jet-lag; you are always in that tug-of-war battle between your mind and body.10. perpetual: 永恒的，永遠(yuǎn)的；tug-of-war:激烈爭(zhēng)奪。My hours on nights were 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. No matter how many shifts in a row I would work or how many consecutive days I’d have off, every time I started to feel like I was adjusting to either daylight or twilight, it was time to go back to the opposite and I was at square one again.11. 無論我連續(xù)上多少天夜班，或者我連續(xù)休息多少天，每當(dāng)我感覺自己開始適應(yīng)白天休息或黎明時(shí)分休息的時(shí)候，就又要重新調(diào)整到相反的作息狀態(tài)，而我又回到了原點(diǎn)。consecutive: 連續(xù)的；square one: 原點(diǎn)，起點(diǎn)。It was a vicious, endless cycle of midnight insomnia and afternoon siestas.12. vicious: 惡性的；insomnia: 失眠；siesta:午睡，午休。As I tried to readjust my schedule to accommodate for errands that could only be accomplished in the 9 to 5 schedule that the rest of the world existed in (trips to the bank, doctors appointments, etc.),13. readjust: 再調(diào)整；accommodate for: 適應(yīng)；errand: 差事。it resulted in inadequate sleep,and so I always functioned in a state of low energy and slow motion.

作為新入職的護(hù)士，一般都要上夜班。大多數(shù)人或許都有過熬夜的經(jīng)歷，但長(zhǎng)時(shí)間黑白顛倒的生活所帶來的痛苦恐怕只有那些真正經(jīng)歷過的人才能體會(huì)。生物鐘亂了，晝夜節(jié)律亂了，新陳代謝亂了，仿佛身體的一切都亂了。與之相伴的是社交生活也亂了——徹底無緣于周末夜晚的娛樂，也沒法去參加朋友的生日聚餐——因?yàn)樯线^夜班的人要用白天的時(shí)間補(bǔ)覺。最可氣的是很多日常瑣事只能在白天完成，比如去銀行、看醫(yī)生等等。然而，夜班的痛苦遠(yuǎn)不止這些……

While some co-workers had difficulty sleeping in the day and resorted to ear plugs, dark curtains, and eye masks, I personally had no problem immediately crashing after work.14. resort to: 采取，動(dòng)用；ear plug: 防噪音耳塞；crash:〈俚〉入睡。My issue was never in falling asleep, but I’ve always struggled to wake up. I still set about eleven alarms every morning. The distinguishing feature in working nights is not having trouble waking up, but the complete disorientation that ensues almost every time you do.15. 上夜班的顯著特點(diǎn)不是無法醒來，而是幾乎每次睡醒之后那種完全頭昏腦漲的狀態(tài)。disorientation: 迷惑，頭腦混亂； ensue: 接踵發(fā)生。My roommates also have anecdotes of me waking up in a frenzy and blurting out “Who’s watching my kids, who’s watching my kids?!”16. anecdote: 趣聞，軼事；frenzy: 異常興奮，極度激動(dòng)；blurt out: 脫口說出。(I work in a pediatric hospital17. pediatric hospital: 兒科醫(yī)院。). Other times, I have been told that I would get up with a jolt, thinking I was late for work, and then collapse back into a deep sleep when I realized it was only 1 p.m.When your biological clock is winded in reverse, you can’t help but lose your sense of time.18. 當(dāng)你的生物鐘被調(diào)到相反的方向時(shí)，你無法不失去你的時(shí)間觀念。

Accompanying the strain19. strain: 極度緊張，重負(fù)。on our biological clocks was the strain on our social lives. Many social gatherings occur at night and were missed for work. It was particularly depressing heading to the hospital at 6 p.m. on a beautiful summer Saturday as everyone around you planned for an evening of fun. And the problem about working nights is that even if you are working one isolated shift, it doesn’t mean sacrificing only those twelve hours. It also requires sleep during the day before the shift, and most of the day after. No matter how much you explain this to others,though, it never comes out right when you tell a friend you can’t make it to her 2 p.m. birthday lunch because you will be sleeping. And when you roll out of bed at 4 p.m. on a Sunday and bump into your roommate’s friends hanging out in the living room, the look of shock you are received with makes you cringe.20. bump into: 撞上，碰見；cringe: 畏縮，退縮。You attempt to defend yourself, but even after you explain your profession and hours, as you glance down at your pajamas and fuzzy slippers and try to calm the monstrosity that is your bed hair,you can’t help but actually feel like the bum they judge you to be.21. 你試圖為自己辯解，但即使你解釋了自己的職業(yè)和工作時(shí)間，當(dāng)你低頭看到自己的睡衣和毛茸茸的拖鞋，努力理順剛睡起來的亂發(fā)，實(shí)際上你必定還是覺得他們會(huì)把你當(dāng)成一個(gè)懶鬼來看。monstrosity: 怪異性，荒謬性；bed hair: 起床時(shí)的亂發(fā)；bum:無業(yè)游民，懶鬼。

The most painful moments of your social life, however, are when you are off of work. There’s nothing more disappointing than when you are wide awake and ready to hang out until the morning, and it turns out to be one of those rare occasions when everyone calls it a night early.22. 你十分清醒，準(zhǔn)備廝混到天亮，但結(jié)果是大家居然都早早就結(jié)束回家，沒什么比這更讓人失望的了。call it a night: 〈口〉今晚 就到此結(jié)束。You try to carry the party on, but to no avail23. to no avail: 徒然，無效。. Eventually you end up at home,surfing through the Internet.

Unless you live with someone who stays up late—then perhaps you are not passing time in solitude. But most married night nurses share that they didn’t see their spouses for days at a time, only traces of evidence that someone was home and asleep while they were at work.

When people are forced to stay up all night, they tend to constantly snack to gain energy and fight their body’s natural inclination to sleep and rest.24. snack: v. 吃點(diǎn)心，吃快餐；inclination:傾向。My urges to munch on something were strongest around 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. (the two times of the night when I would feel like I was hitting a wall),and I usually fulfilled those urges with peanut M&M’s and Lay’s Sour Cream and Cheddar chips.25. munch: 用力咀嚼；M&M’s: 美國(guó)瑪氏巧克力豆；Lay’s Sour Cream: 樂事酸奶；Cheddar chips: 切達(dá)奶酪薯?xiàng)l。Thankfully, all the weight gained over those years is usually lost within a couple of months of transitioning to day shift.

There is a certain camaraderie26. camaraderie: 同志情誼，友情。on the night shift that you can’t find anywhere else. The majority of the staff are newer and younger, and less burnt out27. burnt out: 勞累，心力交瘁。than the day staff. When I finally made the switch, however, as the quality of my life outside of work drastically improved, I realized I could never voluntarily relive the Dark Ages.28. drastically: 大幅度地，徹底地；relive: 重新過……的生活。I now run on the same clock as the diurnal29. diurnal: 白天的。majority of the world around me. I appreciate the ability to carry out everyday errands during business hours. And I’m grateful that when I wake up, my mind is lucid enough to know that there aren’t any serious implications to snoozing, and I can press that button with ease.30. 令我很感激的是，每天醒來之時(shí)，我的頭腦都足夠清醒，知道即使打個(gè)盹兒也不會(huì)造成什么嚴(yán)重影響，因此我可以輕松地將（鬧鐘的）那個(gè)按鈕摁下去。lucid: 清醒的；implication: 影響；snooze:〈口〉打瞌睡，小睡；with ease: 容易地，輕松地。