VOA慢速英语2015 改变工作日程可治疗社交时差

Change in Work Schedule Could Cure 'Social Jet Lag' 改变工作日程可治疗社交时差

From VOA Learning English this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Do you often start your day feeling tired? Do you ever fall asleep at work? Do you sometimes just feel out of it -- as if your brain is still asleep, even though your body is awake?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you might be suffering from what researchers call "social jet lag." And help might come from simply changing your work hours.

Till Roenneberg is a German chronobiologist. “Chono” comes from the Greek root word “chronos” and means "time." So, a chronobiologist is a scientist that studies the states of being awake and being asleep.

Mr. Roenneberg says that many people are working at times that don't match their body's natural sleep-wake cycle. This natural cycle is called the circadian rhythm. Mr. Roenneberg says when your work schedule conflicts with your body’s inner clock it leads to extreme tiredness, similar to “jet lag”.

"… meaning your body clock would give you the optimal¹ window for sleeping, let's say between midnight and eight o'clock ((in the morning)) or even later, but your social schedules would like you to fall asleep at ten o'clock and get up at six o'clock with the work times, for example. And that discrepancy² is very much like a jet lag situation."

With jet lag, people feel extremely tired when they travel by air far distances. They end up in a place where the sleep-wake cycle is different from their own.

Till Roenneberg led researchers in a study at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany. They studied “social jet lag" among workers at a steel company in Europe.

Factory workers were given work times that matched their natural sleeping habits. Supervisors³ did not force the so-called "night owls⁴," people who like to stay awake at night, to get up early for work. On the other hand, supervisors also did not force early risers, sometimes called “larks,” to work late.

Changing the schedules of the workers to fit their lifestyle improved their sense of wellbeing, says scientist Mr. Roenneberg.

"They sleep up to almost an hour longer on work days and therefore much shorter on their free days. Normally, people have to catch up on their sleep loss on their work-free days. And we have shortened sleep on work-free days and lengthened⁵ the sleep on work days."

In other words, with the extra hour of sleep, workers reported feeling more rested. They also reported having small improvements in their general wellbeing.

However, Mr. Roenneberg says, the night owls did not report the same level of improvement. This suggests that nighttime work is hard on everyone.

He adds that employees who wake up after better rest are more productive.

"We still have to convince the employers that this is of financial benefits for them; and of course the workers, too, that it is of health benefits for them too. And so this just the beginning and that's why we went into a large industry to do this experiment to show that it works."

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Till Roenneberg and his team now plan to experiment with mice to investigate a suspected link between "social jet lag" and health problems, including obesity⁶.

Words in This Story

out of it – adj. idiomatic⁷ not thinking clearly. For example, “I’m so out of it this morning. I poured orange juice in my coffee instead of milk.”

jet lag – n. a tired and unpleasant feeling that you sometimes get when you travel by airplane to a place that is far away

circadian rhythm – n. physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness in an organism's environment. They are found in most living things, including animals, plants and many tiny microbes.

cycle – n. a set of events- or actions that happen again and again in the same order : a repeating series of events or actions

shift – n. the scheduled period of time during which a person works

1 optimal   

adj.最适宜的；最理想的；最令人满意的

参考例句：

• What is the optimal mix of private and public property rights in natural resources?私人和国家的自然资源产权的最适宜的组合是什么？
• Optimal path planning is a key link for the sailing contest.帆船最优行驶路径规划是帆船比赛取胜的关键环节。

2 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

3 supervisors   

n.监督者，管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
• Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句

4 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

5 lengthened   

（时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The afternoon shadows lengthened. 下午影子渐渐变长了。
• He wanted to have his coat lengthened a bit. 他要把上衣放长一些。

6 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

7 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。