Is it better to be an early bird or a night owl?
早起鸟与夜猫子，谁更胜一筹？
The promise and perils of waking before sunrise
日出前醒来的利与弊
Rare is the chief executive who extols the virtues of a lie-in.
很少有公司首席执行官会推崇赖床的好处。
Tim Cook, boss of Apple, maker of the iPhone, wakes between 4am and 5am. So does Bob Iger, his counterpart at Disney, a media giant.
苹果公司的老板蒂姆•库克（Tim Cook）通常在早上4点到5点之间醒来，迪士尼的掌门人鲍勃•伊格尔（Bob Iger）也是如此。
According to one survey, two-thirds of the chief executives of large American companies are up by 6 o’clock; for average Americans the share is less than one in three.
根据一项调查，三分之二的大型美国公司的首席执行官在早上6点前起床；而普通美国人早起的比例却不到三分之一。
For those aspiring to corporate greatness, the message seems clear: you snooze, you lose.
对于那些渴望在商界取得伟大成就的人来说，这个信息很明确：赖床使你落后。
Your guest Bartleby harbours no such ambitions. But he has, in the past, experimented with early starts, and can confirm that their benefits go beyond the smug sense of satisfaction that comes from arriving at your desk before your editor.
本刊专栏客座编辑巴托比（译者注：Bartleby 是经济学人的一个专栏）其实并没有太多的野心，但他过去也曾尝试过早起。他发现，早起的好处远不止于提前到达办公室时的那份自得。
Inboxes can be cleared and tricky problems mulled over before the onslaught of emails and meetings begins, leaving you feeling well prepared for the day ahead. ***
在邮件和会议还未开始之前，他可以把未读邮件处理完，仔细思考那些棘手的问题，从而更好地为新的一天做准备。
Those quiet hours of the morning need not be spent solely on work.
清晨的宁静，无需只献给工作。
In a popular genre of TikTok videos, influencers film themselves performing elaborate morning routines in which they submerge themselves in ice baths, recite affirmations and mindfully prepare nootropic coffees.
在TikTok上，众多网红纷纷晒出自己复杂的晨间仪式，他们泡冰水浴，做晨诵，精心调制健脑咖啡。
In one widely pilloried video, Kris Krohn, a business coach, details how he wakes at 4 in the morning to “align the pharmacy of the body and over-dopamine the mind”.
其中，商业教练克里斯•克罗恩（Kris Krohn）的一则视频被广为诟病，视频中他详细讲述了自己如何在凌晨4点醒来，“调整身体机能，为大脑注入满满活力”。
Although Mr Krohn’s routine may lack scientific rigour, plenty of research finds merit in early rising.
尽管克罗恩先生的日常习惯可能并不严谨，但众多研究确实证实了早起的益处。
In a study conducted in 2012 by Renée Biss and Lynn Hasher, then both at the University of Toronto, early birds reported feeling happier and healthier.
2012年，多伦多大学的蕾妮•比斯（Renée Biss）和琳恩•哈舍（Lynn Hasher）进行了一项研究，结果显示早起的人往往更加快乐和健康。
Night owls, their nocturnal opposites, tend to have less sleep, which can weigh on their mood and health—as well as their productivity.
与此相反，习惯晚睡的夜猫子们，往往睡眠不足，这不仅影响他们的情绪和健康，还可能降低他们的工作效率。
Andrew Conlin of the University of Oulu, in Finland, and co-authors found that men who rose late made 4% less money than those who were up early (they did not test whether an extra 4% is enough to entice slumberers to throw off their duvets).
芬兰奥卢大学的安德鲁•康林（Andrew Conlin）及其研究团队发现，晚起的男性比早起的男性收入低4%（但他们并未测试多出的4%是否能激励那些贪睡的人摆脱被窝）。
Early birds are certainly held in higher regard.
早起的人确实更受尊重。
Rolling into the office late continues to be frowned upon in most workplaces.
在大多数工作场所，迟到依然是不被看好的。
A study published in 2022 by Jessica Dietch of Oregon State University and her co-authors found that night owls were perceived by respondents as being “lazy”, “undisciplined” and “immature”.
俄勒冈州立大学的杰西卡•迪奇（Jessica Dietch）及其合著者在2022年发表的一项研究发现，夜猫子被受访者视为“懒惰”、“不守纪律”和“不成熟”。
To pile on the the stereotypes, they are fatter, too, according to research by Lap Ah Tse of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and colleagues.
不仅如此，根据香港中文大学的谢立亚（音译，Lap Ah Tse）及其同事的研究，人们针对夜猫子还有更多的刻板印象，包括肥胖等。
Rising early is not, though, all upside.
然而，早起并非全然有益。
Those ready and waiting to receive work when the boss arrives may be given more of it. ***
那些一早就准备好迎接工作的员工可能会被分配更多的工作。
If the early bird gets the worm, the clever worm stays in bed.
如果早起的鸟儿有虫吃，那么聪明的虫子就会选择赖床。
Urgent tasks often come up during the day, meaning that those who come in early may end up working just as late as their dawn-averse colleagues.
白天常常会有紧急任务出现，这意味着早到的人可能最终会和那些赖床的同事一样工作到很晚。
And the more emails you send in the morning, the more responses you are bound to get back.
而且，你早上发送的邮件越多，你就越可能收到更多的回复，也就意味着有更多的工作需要处理。
Waking before sunrise also risks turning you into a bore.
在日出前醒来还可能让你变得乏味。
Some larks cannot resist describing how much they got done while owls bashed the snooze button.
有些早起的百灵鸟会忍不住炫耀自己完成了多少工作，而夜猫子们却还在狂按闹钟的延时按钮。
Others go home early to tuck themselves in rather than socialise after hours.
还有一些人则早早回家休息，而不会在工作之余去参加社交活动。
Night owls, by contrast, let loose.
相比之下，夜猫子们则更加放纵。
Research shows they drink more and take more drugs. They also have more sex.
研究表明，他们酗酒、嗑药的频率更高，性生活也更频繁。
Christoph Randler and colleagues at the Heidelberg University of Education found that men who stayed up later had “higher mating success”.
海德堡教育大学的克里斯托夫•兰德勒（Christoph Randler）及其同事发现，晚睡的男性“拥有更高的择偶成功率”。
In the eyes of many, late nights are the preserve of youth, whereas early mornings are the domain of the geriatric.
在许多人的眼中，熬夜是青春的特权，而早起则是老年人的专利。
Efforts to alter your circadian rhythm are likely to end in sleepy frustration.
试图改变你的生物钟很可能会以疲惫和沮丧告终。
A person’s chronotype, to use the scientific lingo, is largely a product of their genes.
从科学的角度来说，一个人的昼夜节律类型（chronotype）在很大程度上是由基因决定的。
Dimming your lights at night and buying a special alarm clock will not magically transform you into a morning person.
晚上调暗灯光和购买特殊的闹钟并不会神奇地将你变成一个早起的人。
Those early hours will be of little use if they are spent staring blankly at a screen through bleary eyes.
如果你在早起的几个小时里只是迷迷糊糊地盯着屏幕看，那么这些时间就毫无意义了。
This Bartleby abandoned his efforts at early starts after growing alarmed at the quantities of caffeine he required to stay awake.
当巴托比意识到自己需要摄入大量咖啡因才能保持清醒的时候，他就放弃了早起的努力。
Early birds, for their part, lose out by never being the life of the party after the sun goes down.
对于早起的人来说，他们在太阳落山后的聚会上永远不会成为焦点人物，这也算是一种损失。
If nothing else, that gives them one fewer thing to feel smug about.
至少，这让他们少了一件可以自鸣得意的事情。
Perhaps the best advice, then, is to stop worrying about your body clock.
如此看来，最佳的建议或许是不要过分在意自己的生物钟。
Most people are neither early birds nor night owls, but in between. They do not perform well first thing in the morning or late in the evening.
事实上，大多数人既不是典型的早起鸟也不是夜猫子，而是介于两者之间，既不是在清晨状态最佳，也不是在深夜最为活跃。
Many, including your columnist, get sleepy in the afternoon, too.
很多人，包括我，在下午时分也会感到困倦。
That is why most offices operate between 9 and 5 — and why they ought to have nap rooms.
因此，大多数办公室把工作时间设置为从上午9点到下午5点，并且应该设有休息室供员工小憩。