做个早起的人并不难
如何养成早起的习惯，并且保证晨间时光愉快又高效？睡眠专家和效率专家分享了他们总结的方法。其中一条建议是：不管做什么，早上不要登录工作邮箱。
Becoming a Morning Person Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
Sleep and productivity experts weigh in on how to get your morning mojo back; ‘Whatever you do, don’t log on to your work email’
2021年11月22日
笔记导读
daycare (center) 日托中心，针对儿童、老人、病人等的日托，日间护理，日间看护。Day care is care that is provided during the day for people who cannot look after themselves, such as small children, old people, or people who are ill. Day care is provided by paid workers.
judgemental(judgmental) /dʒʌdʒ’mɛntl/ 轻率评价的；动辄评头论足的；动辄指责人的 judging people and criticizing them too quickly
sleep in 睡懒觉:赖床
ditch 摆脱;抛弃 If you ditch something that you have or are responsible for, you abandon it or get rid of it, because you no longer want it. ◆ The new road building programme has been ditched. 新的道路建设计划已废弃。
cusp /kʌsp/ 介于两个状态之间的;将要进入特定状态的； be on the cusp of something ◆ I am sitting on the cusp of middle age…我将步入中年。
returning to in-person learning 返校复课
night owls 夜猫子
circadian /sɜː’keɪdɪən/ （每 24 小时人或动物体内变化）昼夜节律的，生理节奏的 connected with the changes in the bodies of people or animals over each period of 24 hours
circadian rhythm 生物钟；生物周期节律；
begrudgingly /bɪ’grʌdʒɪŋli/ 不情愿地；不乐意地；勉强地；If you do something begrudgingly, you do it unwillingly.
双语全文
First I was waiting until the kids went back to daycare. Then the deadline was the return to the office, which never came.
Here I still was: avoiding my alarm clock, stumbling out to walk the dog in my pajamas, ignoring judgmental looks from my husband as he sipped his green smoothie, 6 a.m. workout complete. Had I even brushed my teeth?
I had to face it. My mornings were a mess.
起初，我想等孩子们回到日托中心之后再说。后来，我给自己定下的最后期限是等我回到办公室上班之后，但这一天一直没有到来。
我现在早上的状态仍然是：避开闹钟，穿着睡衣摇摇晃晃地出去遛狗，清晨六点，丈夫已经锻炼完毕，看着一边品尝绿色果蔬汁一边用评判的眼神打量我的丈夫，我会直接无视他。对了，我刷牙了吗？
不得不承认，我的晨间生活一团糟。
It began as a small indulgence in a strange time, the delicious pandemic sleep-in. Virtual school meant no frenzied dropoffs; remote workers ditched the commute. What else was there to do, stuck at home? A Nielsen survey from June 2020 found 54% of those working remotely were getting up later than before, compared with 12% rising earlier.
Now, on the cusp of a new season, it’s time to take back our mornings. Many kids are returning to in-person learning. Some workers are being called to the office. And even if you don’t have something making you get out of bed, now might still be the moment.
“We kind of have to just do it ourselves, because we don’t know what’s coming next,” says Eric Komo, a manager with software company Leadpages, who lives in Roseville, Minn.
最开始，只是非常时期中的小小放纵而已——疫情时可以美美地赖个床。学校改成线上教学后，早晨不用再紧赶慢赶地送孩子上学；远程办公也省去了早起通勤的烦恼。宅在家里，还能干什么呢？分析公司尼尔森(Nielsen)2020年6月的一项调查显示，54%的远程办公人群起床时间比以前更晚了，相比之下，只有12%的人比以前起得更早。
入冬之际，是时候“重新找回”我们的晨间时光了。许多孩子已返校复课，有些上班族也回到了办公室。即便你没有起床的动力，现在或许也是时候改变了。
“我们只有靠自己，因为我们不知道接下来会发生什么。”软件公司Leadpages的经理埃里克·科莫(Eric Komo)说，他住在明尼苏达州罗斯维尔(Roseville)。
In the early days of the pandemic, he took advantage of the freedom, ditching his early-morning bike ride in favor of snoozing. It took a pandemic puppy to shock him and his husband back to a better routine. Boba, the 10-pound Shih Tzu the couple got in August last year, wakes up at 6 a.m. No exceptions.
Now the couple keeps a strict 10 p.m. bedtime, and they spend their mornings sharing coffee, reading newsletters and running outside together. Mr. Komo says he feels more energized.
“Secretly we were very grateful,” he says. “It got our day started and kind of opened up time in the morning that we didn’t know we needed.”
新冠疫情初期，他很享受这种自由，果断放弃了早起骑车的习惯，趁机在床上多睡一会儿。后来，他和丈夫养的一只狗把他们带回了更健康的作息状态。这条狮子狗名叫博巴(Boba)，重约10磅（九斤），是他们从去年8月份开始养的。博巴会在清晨六点起床，每天如此。
现在，两人每晚10点会准时上床，早上起床后，他们会利用这段时间一起喝咖啡，看看新闻，还会一起到户外跑步。科莫说，他觉得自己现在更有活力了。
“我们私下里很感激它。”他说，“它开启了我们一天的生活，让我们把早晨的时间利用了起来，以前我们都不知道自己需要这些时间。”
One of Mr. Komo’s colleagues at Leadpages, Bob Sparkins, seems a little less convinced. He has loved sleeping in until 8 a.m. during the pandemic.
“I know it’s healthier,” he says of shifting to earlier mornings, as his two kids transfer from their at-home pandemic learning pod back to school. Then he recalls how packing daily lunches feels. “Sisyphean.”
Mr. Sparkins has been prepping for the transition by setting a timer on his television so it automatically turns off by 10:30 p.m.—the effectiveness of the cue varies depending on how good the show is—and filling the freezer with home-cooked, easy-to-grab food, like pancakes for quick breakfasts. He has also talked to his boss about coming in a little late. The pandemic showed flexibility doesn’t have to impact productivity, he says.
鲍勃·斯帕金斯(Bob Sparkins)是科莫在Leadpages的同事，他对此似乎不以为然。疫情期间，他喜欢睡到早上8点。
“我知道这样更健康。”他说自己最近起得要早一些，因为孩子们结束了疫情期间在家学习的状态，开始返校上课。他还回忆起每天出门前都要打包午餐的感觉。“这就像西西弗斯推石头（Sisyphean，译注：形容总也完不成且没有成就的工作）。”
斯帕金斯一直以来都在为过渡做准备，他给电视设置了晚上十点半自动关机——但这个办法的有效性取决于节目是否好看——还在冰箱里装满了各种容易拿取的自烹饪食物，比如几张饼就可以迅速解决早餐。他还同公司老板商量，能否稍晚一点到公司。斯帕金斯说，疫情期间的经历表明，弹性工作制不一定会影响工作效率。
How to get going
唤醒身心
The sleep researchers I talked to would approve. They made me feel infinitely better about my own habits—so much so that I considered sharing some of their findings with my husband, in hopes of tempering all those loving but slightly condescending looks.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, you’re just lazy because you get up late,’ ” says Elise Facer-Childs, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who has studied night owls. “But there’s actually really clear scientific evidence behind these differences.”
Still, she acknowledges we’re living in a morning person’s world. To shift earlier, start by getting into bed 15 minutes earlier than usual, says Rebecca Robbins, a sleep scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Cut out screen time at least 30 minutes before bed, and quit with the snooze button, which just interrupts the flow of natural sleep, she says.
和我聊过的睡眠专家会认同我的做法。有了他们的肯定，我对自己的这些习惯感觉好多了——以至于我都考虑把他们的一些发现同丈夫分享，希望他能控制一下那些带着爱意也有点鄙夷的眼神。
“很多人会觉得，‘你起得这么晚，你太懒了。’”澳大利亚莫纳什大学(Monash University)研究员艾莉丝·菲斯-切尔兹(Elise Facer-Childs)说，她的研究对象包括“夜猫子”人群。“可实际上，这些差异背后确实有明确的科学依据。”
尽管如此，她也承认，我们身边还是有不少喜欢早起的人。波士顿布列根和妇女医院(Brigham and Women’s Hospital)的睡眠科学家瑞贝卡·罗宾斯(Rebecca Robbins)说，要想早点起床，一开始，你可以头天晚上比平时早15分钟上床。她说，睡前至少30分钟不看电子设备，再就是，不要启用延时闹钟，它只会扰乱你的自然睡眠。
Once you’re up, head outside. Exposure to light will help reset your circadian rhythm. After two weeks, you’ll feel good, Dr. Robbins says.
Being awake is only half the battle. You also need a solid morning routine, says Wendy Ellin, a workplace productivity consultant based in Atlanta.
“Do you want to live accidentally or do you want to live intentionally?” she asks. “Accidentally makes me nervous.”
起床后，就到外面去转转。户外的光线可以帮助你调整生物钟。罗宾斯博士说，两周后，你就会感觉很舒服了。
不过，如果只是从睡梦中醒来，你只做到了一半。专注于提高工作效率的亚特兰大职场顾问温迪·艾林(Wendy Ellin)说，除此之外，你还需要有一套固定的晨间安排。
“你想让生活充满偶然性，还是更有计划性？”她问道，“偶然性会让我紧张不安。”
Her own morning routine is a 45-minute eye-opener that includes meditating, sipping hot water with lemon, writing in a gratitude journal and stretching (a regimen I find both awe-inspiring and terrifying). She promises a mere 7 minutes is enough—just think about what motivates and focuses you. Do three yoga poses, turn on your coffee machine, pet your dog. Whatever you do, don’t log on to your work email, she advises.
“It’s more people needing your attention,” she says. “That stuff just starts to swirl in your head.” Save it for when you’ve had a little time to adjust to the waking world.
艾林的晨间安排是一套45分钟的“身心唤醒”流程，其中包括冥想、喝热柠檬水、写下你为之感恩的事，以及拉伸练习（这套养生法既让我佩服，又让我觉得难以企及）。她保证说，这部分其实七分钟时间就够了——只要想想你的动力和重心是什么。做三个瑜伽动作，打开咖啡机，摸摸你的狗。她还建议，不管做什么，不要登录工作邮箱就行。
“有更多人需要你的关注。”她说，“（打开工作邮箱后）这些东西会在你的脑海里挥之不去。”等你有时间去适应醒来后的世界时，再去考虑这些事。
Add a buffer
建立缓冲
Earlier in the pandemic, Edwin Akrong fell into the habit of rolling out of bed and heading straight to video calls on his computer. The “cold start” was jarring, says the Brooklyn, N.Y., resident, a co-founder and chief product officer at communication startup Katch.
“You’re not in the flow,” he says.
He realized he needed a buffer between sleep and work. These days, he wakes as early as 5:30 to fit in a run before meetings with colleagues in India.
“The first time was definitely awful. It was like, why am I doing this?” he says.
疫情之初，家住纽约市布鲁克林的埃德温·阿克隆(Edwin Akrong)养成了一个习惯：起床后马上到电脑前开视频会议。他说，这种生硬的衔接让他觉得很不舒服。阿克隆是通信类初创企业Katch的联合创始人兼首席产品官。
“你还没有缓过来呢。”他说。
他意识到，他需要在睡眠和工作之间有一个缓冲。最近，他五点半就会起床，先去跑跑步，然后再和印度的同事开视频会议。
他说，“最开始当然很痛苦。我当时想，我为什么要这么做？”
Now he’s more used to it. On days he heads into the company’s co-working space, he opts for a 20-minute bike commute over taking the subway so he can think through his goals for the day and shift his mind-set.
I found that some movement in the morning was key for me, too. Over the summer I started running, and the promise of cooler temperatures got me out the door, begrudgingly, as early as 6:30. I even convinced my husband to make me one of those green smoothies.
It was good. But I’m still not sure it was quite as delicious as an extra hour with my head on the pillow.
现在，他已经习惯多了。去公司的共享办公空间上班的日子，他不会乘地铁，而是选择骑20分钟的车，这样就可以利用路上的时间思考当天的目标，同时也可以调整思维状态。
我发现，如果早上能起来活动一下，对我很有用。夏天的时候我开始早起跑步，那会儿，外面的凉爽天气是我出门的动力，虽然我很不情愿六点半就要出门。我甚至说服我的丈夫也给我做一杯他那样的绿色果蔬汁。
果蔬汁很好喝。不过和多睡一个小时相比，我还是不确定哪个更“美味”。
