科學生物鐘,健康每一天Listen to your body

Ever wonder why, no matter how hard you try, you can’t be one of those exercisers who jog 5km every dawn.

有沒有想過爲何不管怎麼努力，你都無法像那些鍛鍊者一樣每天晨跑五千米。

Stop blaming yourself. It’s not because you lack discipline, it’s because your body isn’t programmed to work out at that hour.

不要怪自己，這並不是因爲你缺乏自律，而是因爲你的身體在那個時間並未將訓練這一項納入“程序”。

According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal website, a growing number of research suggests that we should pay more attention to our body clock when we make daily plans.

《華爾街日報》網站上的一篇最新報道稱，有越來越多的研究表明，當制定日常計劃時，我們應該更加關注自身的生物鐘。

Our body clock, or natural body rhythm, influences our energy and alertness. Paying attention to it can help us pinpoint the different times of day when we best perform specific tasks – from thinking creatively to exercising.

我們的生物鐘，或者說是生理節奏，會影響我們的精力和靈敏度。關注生物鐘能幫助我們精確地找到一天中的哪個時段，做哪項工作效率最高，無論是創新思考還是鍛鍊身體。

The reality, however, is that most of us organize their time around work demands, school deadlines, commuting or social events. Doing whatever your body feels like doing is a luxury in today’s fast-paced modern society.

而事實上，我們中大多數人都在根據工作需要、課程期限、通勤或是社交活動來安排時間表。在當今快節奏的摩登社會中，做身體想做的事情十分奢侈。

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. Obeying our body clock has significant health benefits. Disrupting our natural body rhythm, on the other hand, has been linked to problems such as depression and obesity, says Steve Key, a biology professor at the University of Southern California.

但這並不代表該做法不值得一試。遵循生物鐘對身體健康十分有益。來自南加州大學的生物學教授史蒂夫• 凱表示，反過來，一旦打破我們的生理節奏，將會導致憂鬱、肥胖等問題的產生

When the body clock can synchronize the rhythms of its natural processes in response to light and other natural influences, it “gives us an edge in daily life”, says Kay.

史蒂夫•凱說：當生物鐘在光線以及其他自然因素影響下，與生理節奏同步時，它便會爲我們的日常生活增添砝碼。

According to him, when it comes to cognitive work, most adults perform best in the late morning. As our body temperature starts to rise just before awakening in the morning and continues to increase until midday, our memory, alertness and concentration gradually improve.

史蒂夫表示，就認知型工作而言，大多數成年人在臨近中午時工作狀態最佳。由於我們的體溫剛好在清晨起牀前開始上升，並且持續增長直到中午，我們的記憶力、靈敏度和集中力也在逐步提升。

However, our ability to concentrate typically starts to diminish soon thereafter. Most of us are more easily distracted between noon and 4 pm.

而之後不久，我們的注意力通常會開始下降。我中的大多數人從中午到下午四點這個時間段裏都很難集中精力。

Alertness also tends to fall after eating a meal and sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm, making that a good time for a nap.

在用餐過後，靈敏度也開始下降；下午兩點左右達到瞌睡高峯，因此這是小睡的絕佳時機。

Surprisingly, tiredness may boost our creative powers. For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best tackled in the evening when they are tired, according to a study in the journal Thinking & Reasoning.

令人意外的是，疲勞能夠增加我們的創造力。一項刊登在《思考和推理》雜誌上的研究表明，對於大多數成年人而言，那些需要用開放性的思維來思考的問題，最佳處理時間往往是在晚上他們感覺疲勞的時候。

This is because tiredness allows the mind to wander more freely to explore alternative solutions.

這是因爲疲勞能讓思維得到更自由的發散，去尋求不同的解決方案。

When choosing a time of day to exercise, paying attention to your body clock can improve results. Physical performance is usually best, and the risk of injury least, from about 3 to 6 pm, says Michael Smolensky, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Texas.

在選擇每日鍛鍊時間的時候，關注生物鐘能提升鍛鍊成果。德克薩斯大學生物醫學工程教授邁克爾•斯莫倫斯基表示：下午三點到六點這個時段中，身體狀態通常最佳，受傷風險也最低。

Muscle strength tends to peak between 2 and 6 pm. And joints and muscles are as much as 20 percent more flexible in the evening, lowering the risk of injury, according to Smolensky.

斯莫倫斯基表示，肌肉力量一般在下午兩點到六點之間達到頂峯。關節和肌肉在晚間的靈活性比其他時間高20%，受傷機率會小一些。

Another boost for physical strength comes from the lungs, which function 17.6 percent more efficiently at 5 pm than at midday.

另一個增強體魄的因素來自肺部。下午五點時肺部的效率要比午間高17.6%。

Of course, not everyone’s body clock is the same, making it even harder to synchronize natural rhythms with daily plans. But research shows that if people don’t follow a typical body clock, they operate on either of two distinctive patterns: Morning people tend to wake up and go to sleep earlier and to be most productive early in the day. Evening people tend to wake up later, start more slowly and peak in the evening.

當然，每個人的生物鐘都不盡相同，這使得日常計劃與生理節奏同步變得難上加難。而研究表明如果一個人不遵循典型的生物鐘，那麼他/她便會選擇兩種獨特時間類型中的一種來行事：早上型人羣往往比一般人要早睡早起，白天的工作效率最高；晚上型人羣會起的較晚，進入狀態較慢，最高效的時間是在晚上。