BBC随身英语｜什么是社交时差？

What is social jet lag?

From Monday to Friday, many of us have an early start and a long day. By the time we've gone to bed and managed to fall asleep, we've been woken up by the alarm to do it all again. Come the weekend, and we're totally exhausted. We sleep in way past our usual wake-up time just to stay in sync enough to start again on Monday.
从周一到周五，我们许多人都早早起床，忙碌一整天。等到我们上床睡觉并好不容易入睡时，又被闹钟叫醒，开始新的一天。到了周末，我们彻底筋疲力尽。我们睡到比平时起床时间晚得多，只是为了保持同步，好在周一时有足够的精力重新开始。

Welcome to social jet lag. That's the term for the disparity between our working-week sleeping pattern, when our sleep times relate to our responsibilities, and the weekend, when we can wake when we choose. And depending on what type of person you are, the difference can be significant.
欢迎来到社交时差。这是指我们的工作周睡眠模式（当我们的睡眠时间与我们的职责相关时）和周末睡眠模式（当我们可以选择何时醒来时）之间的差异。这种差异可能很大，它取决于你是哪种类型的人。


For night owls - those whose natural rhythm is to wake and go to bed later - there can be significant health-related issues, according to a recent study published by Taylor and Francis Group online. The study concludes the further the divergence between working-week and weekend sleep times, the greater the health issues – including a higher risk of heart disease and other metabolic problems. And because so many jobs and tasks start early, night owls are effectively forced into harmonising with the early birds.
泰勒和弗朗西斯集团最近在网上发表的一项研究表明，对于夜猫子来说（他们的自然节奏是晚睡晚起），可能会有重大的健康问题。该研究得出的结论是，工作周和周末的睡眠时间差距越大，健康问题就越严重——包括增加患心脏病和其他代谢问题的风险。因为很多工作和任务都是很早就开始的，夜猫子实际上被迫与早起的鸟儿协调一致。

So what can night owls do: force themselves to integrate by sacrificing their lie in? 'It's the worst thing you can do' says Professor Till Roenneberg, professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. This is because people's sleep pattern is half determined by genetics. The other half correlates with their age and environment. Getting less sleep is unlikely to realign your genetic tendencies.
那么夜猫子们能做什么：通过牺牲他们的睡眠来迫使自己融入社会吗？慕尼黑路德维希-马克西米利安大学医学心理学研究所的时间生物学教授蒂尔·罗恩伯格说:“这是你能做的最糟糕的事情。”。这是因为人的睡眠模式有一半是由基因决定的。另一半与他们的年龄和环境有关。睡眠不足不太可能重新调整你的遗传倾向。

Our bodies evolved to coordinate with the rise and fall of the Sun. We should feel sleepy as the light dissipates. But modern life, with its artificial light and modern devices, such as computers and smartphones, means we have deviated. Now we are exposed to more light for longer periods of time, keeping our bodies awake longer. For night owls, who already tend to sleep later, this delays things even further.
我们的身体进化得与太阳的起落相协调。当光线散去时，我们应该感到困倦。但现代生活中的人造光和现代设备，如电脑和智能手机，意味着我们已经偏离了这一规律。现在，我们暴露在更多光线下的时间更长，让我们的身体保持清醒的时间也更长。对于本来就睡得比较晚的夜猫子来说，这就进一步推迟了他们的睡眠时间。

One solution, beyond changing society's early-start tendencies, is to reorient our body clock by manipulating our exposure to light By taking more sunlight in the morning and minimising the amount of artificial light we are exposed to in the evening – particularly on electronic devices - we can rebalance our bodies to feel sleepy earlier. It's far from easy, but better that than losing your whole weekend to sleep.
除了改变社会的早起倾向，还有一个解决方案，那就是通过调整我们暴露在阳光下的时间来重新调整我们的生物钟。通过在早上吸收更多的阳光，在晚上尽量减少我们暴露在人工光线下的时间——尤其是在电子设备上——我们可以重新平衡我们的身体，使我们更早地感到困倦。这绝非易事，但总比整个周末都睡不着好。

词汇表
in sync 同步的，协调一致
social jet lag 社交时差， 假后返工时差，社会性时差（一个人在工作日和休息日睡眠时间之间的时间差异）
disparity 差异，不一致
sleeping pattern 睡眠模式，睡眠习惯
night owl 夜猫子（晚上熬夜的人）
natural rhythm 自然节奏（指人体内在的生物钟和生理节律）
divergence 差异
metabolic 新陈代谢的
harmonise 和…保持一致，协调
early bird 早起者，早到者
integrate 融入（某群体）
correlate 与…相关，相互关联
realign 重新排列，改组
dissipate （使）消散，散去
deviate 违背规则，偏离
reorient 重新适应，再调整
rebalance 再平衡

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