好英语网为什么不应该强迫自己早睡早起？
We’ve all heard it before: to be successful, get out of bed early. After all, Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up at 3:45am, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne at 3:30am and Richard Branson at 5:45am – and, as we know, “the early bird catches the worm.”
我们都听过这样的说法：想成功，就早起。毕竟，苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克（Tim Cook）凌晨3:45就起床了，菲亚特首席执行官塞尔吉奥·马尔乔内（Sergio Marchionne）3:30起床，而理查德·布兰森（Richard Branson）也在5:45起床——更何况，还有一句谚语说得好："早起的鸟儿有虫吃。"
But just because some successful people wake up early, does that mean it’s a trait most of them share? And if the idea of having exercised, planned your day, eaten breakfast, visualised and done one task before 8am makes you want to roll over and hit snooze ’til next Saturday, are you really doomed to a less successful life?
可是，仅仅因为成功人士有早起的习惯，就表示我们多数人都应该效仿这种做法吗？早晨8点之前起床锻炼、好好计划一天、吃好早餐、设想并完成一项任务，如果这样的想法让你感觉昏昏欲睡，一直到下个星期六才能回过神来，那么你的人生是否注定无法成就大业？
For about half of us, this isn’t really an issue. It’s estimated that some 50% of the population isn’t really morning or evening-oriented, but somewhere in the middle.
对于一半的人来说，这其实不是问题。据估计，大约有50%的人既不是"百灵鸟"，也不是"猫头鹰"，而是介于二者之间。
"猫头鹰"记忆力更好，处理事情的速度更快，认知能力也更强。接招吧，"百灵鸟"
Roughly one in four of us, though, tend more toward bright-eyed early risers, and another one in four are night owls. For them, the effects can go beyond falling asleep in front of the TV at 10pm or being chronically late for work. Research shows that morning versus evening types show a classic left-brain versus right-brain division: more analytical and cooperative versus more imaginative and individualistic.
大约四个人中就有一个喜欢早睡早起，还有一个人喜欢晚睡晚起。对他们来说，这种特点产生的影响可不只是晚上10点在电视机前昏昏欲睡，或者常年上班迟到这么简单。研究表明，"百灵鸟"和"猫头鹰"的差异显示了典型的左右脑分割状态：一边偏重分析和合作，另一边偏重想象力和个人主义。
Numerous studies have found that morning people are more persistent, self-directed and agreeable. They set higher goals for themselves, plan for the future more and have a better sense of well-being. And compared to night owls, they’re less likely to be depressed, drink or smoke.
很多研究都发现，"百灵鸟"更固执，更自我，也更和蔼。他们会给自己制定较高的目标，也会对未来展开更多规划，幸福感也更强。与"猫头鹰"相比，他们不太容易抑郁、酗酒或抽烟。
Although morning types may achieve more academically, night owls tend to perform better on measures of memory, processing speed and cognitive ability, even when they have to perform those tasks in the morning. Night-time people are also more open to new experiences and seek them out more. They may be more creative (although not always). And contrary to the maxim (‘healthy, wealthy and wise’), one study showed that night owls are as healthy and wise as morning types – and a little bit wealthier.
虽然"百灵鸟"的学术成就可能更高，但"猫头鹰"往往更擅长记忆、处理速度和认知能力，即便是当他们不得不在早晨完成这些任务时也不例外。"猫头鹰"对新的体验更加开放，也希望探索更多东西。他们可能更有创造力（尽管并非总是如此）。虽然俗语说"早睡早起，健康、聪明又富有"，但有一项研究表明，"猫头鹰"跟"百灵鸟"一样健康，一样聪明，甚至更加富有。
Still think the morning people sound more like CEO material? Don’t set your alarm for 5am just yet. As it turns out, overhauling your sleep times may not have much effect.
你是否仍然觉得早起的人更像是首席执行官的材料？别急着把闹铃调到早晨五点。实际上，调整睡眠时间可能不会产生太大效果。
“If people are left to their naturally preferred times, they feel much better. They say that they are much more productive. The mental capacity they have is much broader,” says Oxford University biologist Katharina Wulff, who studies chronobiology and sleep. On the other hand, she says, pushing people too far out of their natural preference can be harmful. When they wake early, for example, night owls are still producing melatonin. “Then you disrupt it and push the body to be in the daytime mode. That can have lots of negative physiological consequences,” Wulff says, like a different sensitivity to insulin and glucose – which can cause weight gain.
"如果人们可以自由选择他们喜欢的时间，感觉就会好得多。他们表示，这样的效率会高得多。心智能力也会大得多。"牛津大学生物学家凯瑟琳娜·伍尔夫（Katharina Wulff）说，她专门研究时间生物学和睡眠。另一方面，她表示，如果迫使人们过分偏离自然偏好，可能会产生破坏。例如，"猫头鹰"早起的时候仍在生成褪黑素。"然后，你终止了这个过程，让自己的身体进入日间模式。这会产生很多对身体不利的影响。"伍尔夫说，例如对胰岛素和葡萄糖的敏感度改变——这会导致体重上升。
In many ways, that makes sense, since research shows that our chronotype, or internal clock, is mainly biological. (Researchers even have found that the circadian rhythms of human cells in vitro correlate with the rhythms of the people they were taken from). Up to 47% of it is inherited, which means if you want to know why you pop up at dawn each day (or never do), you should probably look at your parents. One genetic factor seems to be the length of the circadian cycle: humans average a 24.2-hour clock, meaning everyone adjusts slightly each day to a 24-hour rhythm. But for night owls, the clock often runs longer – meaning that, without external cues to change, they’ll fall asleep and get up later and later over time.
在很多情况下都是这种道理，因为研究表明，我们的睡眠类型（或者生物钟）主要是一种生物现象。（研究人员甚至发现，人类细胞在体外的昼夜节律与它的主人相同。）高达47%来自遗传，也就是说，如果你想知道自己为什么每天凌晨起床（或者从来都不这样），那就应该看看自己的父母。其中一个遗传因素似乎是昼夜周期的长度：人体的昼夜周期平均为24.2小时，表明所有人都要略作调整才能适应每天24小时的节律。但对于"猫头鹰"来说，昼夜周期往往更长——也就是说，如果不用外部信号对其进行调整，他们入睡和起床的时间就会越来越晚。
Your preference does change as you age. Children tend toward morning, with a peak shift toward night around age 20 and a slight change back toward morning at around age 50. But compared to your peers, you’ll probably always fall within the same rough part of the spectrum.
偏好的确会随着年龄而改变。儿童倾向于早起，20岁左右达到顶峰，之后开始转向晚睡晚起，到了50岁左右又开始重新向早睡早起转变。但与同年龄段的人相比，你所处的大致区间可能不会改变。
Bright eyes
明亮的眼睛
In our rush to figure out the ‘secrets’ of success, we tend to forget a couple of things. First, not all high achievers are early risers, and not all early risers are successful. (Famous late risers include Box CEO Aaron Levie and Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti, plus creatives like James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Gustave Flaubert).
在我们争相探索"成功秘诀"时，往往会忘记一件事情。首先，并非所有成功人士都是"百灵鸟"，也并非所有"百灵鸟"都能成功。（著名的"猫头鹰"包括Box首席执行官阿隆·莱维（Aaron Levie）和Buzzfeed首席执行官乔娜·佩雷蒂（Jonah Peretti），另外还有詹姆斯·乔伊斯（James Joyce）、格特鲁德·斯泰因（Gertrude Stein）和古斯塔夫·夫劳博特（Gustave Flaubert）等创意人士）。
But more importantly, in a phrase beloved by academics everywhere, correlation isn’t causation. In other words, it’s not clear that waking up early itself provides the benefit. Instead, it may be that most of us are expected to start work or school by 8 or 9am. If you’re a morning person, a combination of biological changes, from your hormones to body temperature, will get you up and at 'em way ahead of your night owl peers. That means people who enjoy rising early will be more aligned with their workday and likely to achieve more. For a night owl waking at 7am, her body still thinks she’s asleep and is acting accordingly, so she’s groggy for much longer than a morning person who wakes up at the same time.
但更重要的是，套用学者最喜欢说的一句话：相关性不代表因果关系。换言之，无法判断是不是早起本身带来了这些好处。相反，有可能是我们多数人都希望早晨八点或九点开始工作。如果你是一个喜欢早起的人，再结合激素和体温等生物学上的变化，就会促使你早起，而且远早于同龄的"猫头鹰"。这意味着享受早起的人更容易契合自己的工作日程，也更有可能实现更大的成就。对于早晨7点起床的"猫头鹰"来说，她的身体可能认为她在睡觉，并作出相应的反应，所以她睡眼朦胧的时间会比同时间起床的"百灵鸟"更长。
Researchers also point out that because evening types often have to function when their bodies don’t want to, it makes sense that they may have worse moods or lower life satisfaction. It may also mean that they’ve had to figure out how to be more innovative and cut corners – which may encourage their creativity and cognitive skills.
研究人员还指出，由于"猫头鹰"往往要在身体不想工作时工作，所以他们的情绪可能比较糟糕，生活满意度也较低。这可能也意味着他们必须想办法提高创意，寻找捷径——这或许会鼓励他们提高创造力和认知技巧。
Because the cultural stereotype is that people who go to bed and rise late are lazy, most people probably try to become morning people as much as they can. The only ones who don’t may inherently have more rebellious, or individualistic, traits.
传统文化认为，晚睡晚起的人都很懒惰，所以多数人可能都会尽量早起。为数不多坚持晚睡晚起的人可能本性上就更加叛逆，更加个人主义。
But shifting someone’s chronotype doesn’t necessarily change these traits. As one recent study found, even as people tried to become ‘morning’ people, it didn’t make them have a better mood or life satisfaction, suggesting these traits are “intrinsic components of the late chronotype.”
但要改变睡眠类型未必非要改变这些特性。最近的一项研究发现，即便当人们试图变成"百灵鸟"时，他们的情绪或生活满意度也不会因此提高，这表明这些特点都是"晚起晚睡睡眠类型的固有元素"。
Other research also has hinted that your sleep preference may be biologically ‘bundled’ with other characteristics. In one recent study, for example, the University of Haifa’s Neta Ram-Vlasov found that more visually-creative people had more sleep disturbances, such as waking several times at night or insomnia. Again, correlation isn’t causation, she says. But there may be a connection to genetics. “There is a dopamine receptor gene that has been previously associated with both increased creativity and also with insomnia and sleep disturbance,” she says.
其他研究也表明，你的睡眠偏好可能在生物学上与其他特点"捆绑"在一起。例如，海法大学的内塔·拉姆-维拉索夫（Neta Ram-Vlasov）最近发现，在视觉元素上有创意的人更容易出现睡眠障碍，例如夜间醒来好几次或者失眠。同样地，相关性不代表因果关系。但可能与基因有关系。"有一种多巴胺受体基因同时与创造力和失眠及睡眠障碍有关。"她说。
Still think you’d be better off if you shifted to becoming a morning person? Morning exposure to bright (or natural) light, avoiding artificial light at night and carefully-timed melatonin intake can help. But because you’re effectively overriding your biology, any changes take discipline and must be consistent to last. And because night owls tend to have a longer circadian cycle, putting them even more at odds with a 24-hour schedule, that can be tougher for them to achieve.
你还是认为早睡早起会让你变得更好吗？可以尝试在早晨暴露于明亮的灯光或自然光下，晚上避开人造光源，并且认真安排褪黑素的摄入时间，这样做或许可以起到帮助。但这么做其实是在违背生物学原理，任何的改变都要自律，并且要保持一致性。然而，由于"猫头鹰"的昼夜周期较长，导致他们与24小时的时间表差异更大，所以就更加难以做到。
In real terms? “The normal person may be able to handle 1.5 hours and achieve a stable entrainment,” says Wulff. Even that will require significant external input – like super-bright morning light (at least 2,000 lux), she says.
实际情况如何？"普通人或许可以处理1.5小时，并实现稳定的生物周期转换。"伍尔夫说。即便是这样，仍然需要大量的外部因素辅助——例如早晨暴露在极其明亮的光照中（至少2,000勒克斯）。
As long as that dawn wake-up isn’t guaranteeing us CEO status, we think we’ll hit snooze on any major changes to our schedule.
只要凌晨起床不能确保我们当上首席执行官，我们就会在生活规律大幅改变时昏昏欲睡。