BBC News:嗜睡和遗传基因有关

Whether you prefer burning the midnight oil or going to bed early so you can get up at the crack of dawn depends on your genes, according to experts.

据专家介绍，你喜欢熬夜还是喜欢早睡早起，这取决于你的基因。

I leap out of bed each morning, keen to start an active day. But I can hear my neighbour's alarm clock ringing non-stop every morning and I doubt he gets to work on time.

我每天早上从床上跳起来，积极的开始我紧张充实的一天。但是我每天早上都可以听见我邻居的闹钟在不停的响，这样我还是怀疑他是是否能准时上班。

A lot of noise comes from his flat in the evening. He's happy to stay up watching telly till the wee small hours, while I turn in early and try to sleep.

晚上他的公寓会传来很多噪音，当我早早的关上电视准备睡觉时，他却喜欢熬夜看电视一直到午夜以后。

Well, it might not be his fault after all. Neurogeneticist Dr Louis Ptacek of University of California would say I'm 'a lark' and my neighbour is 'an owl'. Families of 'extreme owls', with Familial Delayed Sleep Phase syndrome, were found to have a different mutation in the same genes.

不过，这可能也不是他的错。加利福尼亚大学的神经遗传学家Louis Ptacek博士会说，我是一只“云雀”，而我的邻居是一只“猫头鹰”。并说，“极端猫头鹰“家族被发现患有睡眠周期延迟症，家庭成员出现不同寻常的基因突变。

We all have internal 'clocks' located in the part of the brain which controls all kinds of bodily functions and it is reset every day by light. These internal clocks run to a different schedule in 'larks' and 'owls'. If you have a fast clock, you like to do things early, and if you have a slow clock, you like to do things late.

我们的大脑中都有内在的生物钟来调控着我们所有的身体机能，而且每天通过光线来进行重置。“云雀”和“猫头鹰”的生物钟不同，形成不同的时刻表。如果你的内在生物钟走的比较快，那么你就喜欢早早的把事情做完，如果你内在的生物钟走的较慢，那么你就喜欢晚一点做事。

Because we live in a 24/7 world, scientists believe it's important to understand a person's 'chronotype' —the time of the day when they function the best. It could help us lead a healthier life.

因为我们生活在一个时时刻刻忙碌着的社会中，科学家认为了解一个人的时间类型很重要—也就是一个人身体运作机能最佳的时候。可以帮助我们生活的更健康。

Prof Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich has studied sleeping patterns and thinks work times should be changed and made more individual to fit in with our chronotypes.

慕尼黑大学的Till Roenneberg教授对睡眠模式进行了研究后，认为应该调整工作时间，根据个人的时间类型来进行个性化的时间分工。

And he has advice for those who can't choose their work shifts: "If that's not possible, we should be more strategic about light exposure", says Prof Roenneberg. "You should try to go to work not in a covered vehicle but on a bike. The minute the sun sets we should use things that have no blue light, like computer screens and other electronic devices."

对于那些不能选择自己工作班次的人，他同样有一些建议：“如果调整工作时间不可能，我们就应该调整曝光量。”你应该尝试骑自行车去上班，而不是坐封闭的交通工具。在日落的时候，我们应该使用没有蓝光的工具，例如电脑和其他电子产品的使用。

So what about you? Are you 'a lark' or 'an owl'?

那么你呢?你是一只“云雀”还是一只“猫头鹰”呢?