早起和晚起，哪種生活方式更有利呢？科學(xué)證明，早起的人更苗條、更健康，但夜貓子更聰明、更有創(chuàng)造力、收入也更高，兩者之間還真是難分伯仲。

如果老板給的薪水不足以激勵(lì)你每日早起，英國大學(xué)的一項(xiàng)新研究又給了你一個(gè)早起的理由：早起的人更不容易得抑郁癥，而且幸福感更強(qiáng)。

Morning people have few problems springing out of bed bright and early to face the day.

對(duì)于愛早起的人來說，一大早從床上爬起來迎接新的一天根本不是什么難事兒。

bright and early: adv. 一大早

Now it has emerged they are less likely to suffer from depression and are generally happier too.

如今科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，愛早起的人不容易得抑郁癥，總體來說也更快樂。

A study has found morning ‘larks’ are up to 35 percent less likely to suffer from depressive symptoms, based on their genes.

一項(xiàng)研究指出，早起的人患抑郁癥的可能性要低35%，這是由他們的基因決定的。

These people, who are more likely to be older and female, also have better wellbeing.

早起的人多為老年人和女性，這些人的幸福感也更強(qiáng)。

The silver lining for night owls is their ‘late riser’ genes may also make them more intelligent, perhaps because they spend more time reading when they are up late.

不幸中的萬幸是，夜貓子的晚睡基因令他們更聰明，可能是因?yàn)樗麄冊(cè)诎疽箷r(shí)花更多時(shí)間閱讀。

Scientists have discovered 327 new genetic regions which determine whether people are ‘larks’ who get up early in the morning or ‘owls’ with later bedtimes who naturally lie in for longer.

科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了327個(gè)新基因區(qū)域，這些基因區(qū)域決定了人們是“早起的鳥兒”還是“夜貓子”。

lie in: 睡懶覺

They have found for the first time that larks and owls may process caffeine differently, so that a morning cup of coffee may stay in a night owl’s system for longer and keep them up at night.

科學(xué)家首次發(fā)現(xiàn)，早起的人和夜貓子攝入咖啡因后身體的處理機(jī)制不同，早上喝的咖啡可能在夜貓子體內(nèi)停留時(shí)間更久，讓他們?cè)谏钜贡３智逍选?/p>

While shift workers who work at night were already known to be more prone to depression, this is the largest genetic study to find those with night owl genes are more at risk.

我們已經(jīng)知道，上夜班的工人更容易得抑郁癥，而這項(xiàng)大型基因研究發(fā)現(xiàn)攜帶夜貓子基因的人患抑郁癥的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)更高。

Professor Mike Weedon, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: ‘The large number of people in our study means we have provided the strongest evidence to date that “night owls” are at higher risk of mental health problems, such as schizophrenia and lower mental wellbeing, although further studies are needed to fully understand this link.’

?？巳卮髮W(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院的麥克·威登教授說：“我們的研究涵蓋了許多人，這意味著我們有強(qiáng)有力的證據(jù)表明夜貓子患上精神疾病的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)更高，比如精神分裂癥和較低的幸福感，不過我們還需要進(jìn)一步研究才能理解這兩者之間的關(guān)聯(lián)。”

Dr Sam Jones, of the University of Exeter, said: ‘The link with depression could be explained by the fact that night owls are forced by their jobs and everyday life to get up early.

?？巳卮髮W(xué)的山姆·瓊斯博士說：“晚起和抑郁之間的關(guān)聯(lián)可以用一個(gè)事實(shí)來解釋：夜貓子受工作和日常生活所迫不得不早起?！?/p>

'Constantly having to fight against your natural body clock could have negative effects on your mental health.’

“總是要和體內(nèi)的生物鐘作斗爭對(duì)心理健康會(huì)產(chǎn)生負(fù)面影響?！?/p>

Experts believe around 15 percent of people are night owls, another 15 percent are larks and the rest of us are morning or evening types to a lesser degree.

專家認(rèn)為，約15%的人是夜貓子，還有15%的人是早起者，其他人則沒有那么明顯。

The largest genetic study of people’s body clocks took in almost 450,000 British people from the UK Biobank genetic database and close to 250,000 people from the US who had used genetic testing service 23andMe.

這項(xiàng)對(duì)人體生物鐘的基因研究是有史以來規(guī)模最大的，從英國生物銀行基因數(shù)據(jù)庫調(diào)取了近45萬英國人的基因資料，并從基因測(cè)試服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)23andMe獲取了近25萬美國人的數(shù)據(jù)。

Scientists found 351 genetic locations thought to make people early or late risers, of which 327 were previously unknown.

科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)有351個(gè)基因區(qū)域決定人們是早起還是晚起的類型，其中327個(gè)基因區(qū)域是此前所不知道的。

People with ‘lark’ genes appeared up to 11 percent less likely to be schizophrenic and had up to a third lower risk of depression.

研究顯示，有早起基因的人患上精神分裂癥的可能性要低11%，患上抑郁癥的可能性要低三分之一。

The larks’ genetic profiles were compared to those of people in a previous study on wellbeing and happiness.

這些早起者的基因資料被拿來和先前一項(xiàng)幸福感研究中的研究對(duì)象相比較。

This showed larks were significantly more likely than night owls to be content with their lives.

結(jié)果顯示，相比夜貓子，早起的人對(duì)自己的生活滿意度要高得多。

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, show for the first time that night owls have differences in their genes which are also linked to intelligence.

發(fā)表在《自然通訊》期刊的這一研究結(jié)果首次表明，夜貓子的基因和常人有差異，而這一差異與智力有關(guān)。

Some night owl genes are active in the retina and the part of the brain which detects light.

一些夜貓子的視網(wǎng)膜以及察覺光線的大腦部位很活躍。

Researchers now suspect night owls may be kept awake more by the artificial light in our homes, which may affect their eyes differently and disrupt signals to the brain telling them it is night-time.

研究人員現(xiàn)在懷疑夜貓子可能是因?yàn)榧依锏娜斯す饩€才保持清醒，這些人工光線會(huì)對(duì)夜貓子的眼睛產(chǎn)生特殊影響，擾亂大腦收到的信號(hào)，讓大腦誤以為夜晚還沒到。

The experts do not yet know how genes for light recognition and caffeine metabolism differ in larks and owls.

專家還不知道早起者和夜貓子在光線識(shí)別和咖啡因代謝有關(guān)的基因方面存在怎樣的差異。

But the differences they have found suggest night owls could be more strongly affected by caffeine, so it wakes them up more or lasts longer in their system, making them sleepy later on.

但是科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)的差異表明，夜貓子受咖啡因的影響更強(qiáng)烈，因此咖啡因能讓他們清醒時(shí)間更長，在體內(nèi)留存時(shí)間也更久，從而導(dǎo)致他們晚睡。

The findings show at least 13 percent of whether someone is a night owl or morning lark is inherited from their parents.

研究結(jié)果顯示，一個(gè)人是夜貓子還是早起者，至少有13%是遺傳自父母。

However the study found no link between night owl genes and obesity and type 2 diabetes, despite previous evidence.

然而，該研究沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)夜貓子基因和肥胖以及2型糖尿病之間的關(guān)聯(lián)，這與先前的證據(jù)不相符。

The findings could lead to drugs to help people avoid depression, and sleep earlier, by blocking troublesome genes.

該研究可能會(huì)促進(jìn)藥物的研發(fā)，通過阻斷問題基因來幫助人們預(yù)防抑郁癥并早睡。

英文來源：每日郵報(bào)

翻譯&編輯：丹妮