Ford has invented a mattress that ' nudges ' you if you start crowding your partnerbut beds are for more than just sleeping Ford发明了床垫

In the same week that a Kickstarter campaign was set up to fund the production of an interactive button encouraging partners to signal they are in the mood for sex, as opposed to just, you know, telling them, the carmaker Ford has suggested an even less romantic product – stay-in-your-lane mattress technology for couples. Happy Valentine’s Day!

在同一个星期，一项名为“反冲式起动机运动”的项目成立，它旨在资助和鼓励那些合作伙伴生产出一种能够给出信号的交互式按钮，比如，当你们想要做爱的时候“提醒”对方，而不是直接说出来。专门生产汽车的福特公司甚至建议推出一款不是那么解风情的产品-“分界床垫”，这真是一个浪漫的建议，情人节快乐！

Ford’s mattress design would include a mechanism to “nudge” partners to their own side of the bed if they began to dominate the space. According to studies (no doubt funded by bed manufacturers), one in four people report better sleep when they sleep alone, which does make some sense, given there is no risk of duvet larceny by your other half, or disruptive snoring. But the idea of couples actually sleeping in separate beds is rather saddening. It seems just a step away from the set-up of former couple Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton, who lived in adjoining houses.

福特的床垫设计纳入了一项“提醒”的功能，当他们正要越过到对方的睡眠区域时，床垫便会自动使其回到他们自己的区域。根据相关调查（毫无疑问这是由床垫制造商在背后发起的），有四分之一的人表示一个人睡睡得更好，如果没有抢被子和令人烦扰的打鼾的情况下，这就足以说明问题了。但如果两个人真的分开睡得话又很不好。于是，相比前面helena和tim分房睡得做法，这种床垫的推出也算是一种比较折中的方式。

Perhaps it’s the practice of sleeping in separate rooms that Ford is trying to avoid, although it remains perplexing why a car manufacturer actually cares (the mattress is at the prototype stage). Maybe less tired people buy more cars? There is also, surely, a glaring issue with this mattress: there are other things couples do in bed, which involve being quite close together, and during which being “nudged” probably isn’t ideal.

也许，这正是福特公司为避免实际分房睡而采取的一个措施，尽管这很费脑子，为什么一个生产汽车的制造商会对生产床垫感兴趣呢？难道让人睡得更好可以促进汽车销量吗？当然这里面涉及到了更多的值得关注的问题，因为人们在床上还要干更多的事情，想要更亲近，如果这时被“提醒”的话那就太煞风景了。

“Humans are most vulnerable when sleeping,” says Neil Stanley, the author of How to Sleep Well, “so we’re programmed to wake when something or someone touches us unexpectedly.” The thing is, though, your significant other sleeping in your bed touching you isn’t unexpected, is it? It’s sort of the point of sleeping together, in both senses of the term.

“人们睡觉的时候是最敏感的，”neil stanley说，他是《如何睡得更好》一书的作者。“所以，当某个人或者某个事情不经意地影响到自己的时候，我们就会被吵醒。”但问题是，躺在你床上的另一半并不是不经意的，不是吗？关键我们是睡在一起的，而且彼此都能感应到对方。

Don’t get me wrong: none of us enjoy being locked in a vice-like grip by the one-night stand we cannot wait to kick out at first light, but spooning with someone you actually like, nay, love; holding hands; “snuggling” (so sorry) – all of these things are quite nice. So, I won’t be investing in Ford’s mattress – although I am sure it will come in any colour, so long as it’s black.

请不要误会：谁都不想被锁在一个充满了罪恶感的床上-就像一天亮就等不及要将一夜情对象一脚踢开一样。我们需要的是爱人的拥抱；手牵着手依偎在一起，这才是最重要的。所以，我不会投资福特的床垫-尽管我确信将来这种床垫会以各种各样的形式出现在市场上，但只要它不是黑色的就好。

翻译：兰桂姬/LANGUAGEE