健康生活:早起鳥比夜貓子更快樂

People who rise early feel happier and more satisfied with life overall, compared to night owls.

和夜貓子相比，早起鳥更快樂，整體生活的滿意度更高。

But the good news for stroppy teenagers is that most people become earlier risers as they age, and this change is also associated with greater feelings of happiness.

對於那些難以控制自己的青少年而言，也有好消息。大部分人隨着年齡的增長，會習慣早起，這種變化會讓人有更強的幸福感。

Researchers at the University of Toronto asked more than 700 people about their preferred time of day and how healthy and happy they generally feel.

多倫多大學的研究人員詢問了700多名人員，問他們最喜歡每天的什麼時候，以及他們健康和快樂的程度。

They then compared the responses of the group of younger adults aged 17 to 38 with older people ages 59 to 79.

研究人員接着把17歲到38歲之間青年人的反應與59到79歲之間老年人的反應進行了對比。

Only about seven per cent of young adults are morning larks, while by age 60 most people preferred to be up with the dawn. Just seven per cent of the oldest people in the study described themselves as night owls.

青年人中只有7%的人是"早起鳥"，而到了60歲，大部分人都喜歡在黎明起牀。在研究中，只有7%的老年人稱自己是"夜貓子"。

"We found that older adults reported greater positive emotion than younger adults, and older adults were more likely to be morning-type people than younger adults," study researcher Renee Biss from the University of Toronto reportedly told LiveScience. The "morningness" was associated with greater happiness emotions in both age groups.

據報道，多倫多大學的研究人員芮妮-比什對生活科學網表示，"我們發現老年人的積極情緒比青年人要多。和青年人相比，老年人是‘早起鳥'的可能性更大。在兩個年齡組中，‘早起鳥'更開心。"

Morning types also tended to report that they felt healthier than the late risers, according to the study that published in the journal Emotion. The researchers said that this apparent health benefit could come from the extra sleep they would enjoy, as their sleeping schedule would fit with society's expectations of rising early for work.

根據發表在《情感》期刊上的研究，"早起鳥"也傾向於說自己比"夜貓子"要健康。研究人員說，這種明顯的健康益處可能來自於"早起鳥"額外的睡眠，因爲他們的睡眠時間表能適應社會所期望的早起工作。

This extra sleep could not only make them feel more alert, but may also boost their immune system.

額外的睡眠不僅會讓他們更加清醒，而且還能提升他們的免疫系統。

"Evening people may be more prone to social jetlag; this means that their biological clock is out of sync with the social clock," Ms Biss said. "Society's expectations are far more organized around a morning-type person`s schedule."

"‘夜貓子'則更容易面臨社交時差；也就是說他們的生物鐘和社會時鐘脫節了，" 比什女士說。"社會預期更多的是圍繞着‘早起鳥'的日程安排。"

"An evening person may go through their week feeling unhappy because they have to get up earlier than they would like to." But Ms Biss said there was hope for night owls as it was possible for them to turn themselves into morning people.

"‘夜貓子'在工作時可能會覺得不開心，因爲他們不得不早起。" 但是比什女士說， "夜貓子"也可以變成"早起鳥"。

"One way to do it is to increase your natural light exposure early in the morning, and to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier," she said. "It's easiest if you have a consistent schedule, to make sure you are waking up at the same time every day."

"其中一種方法是，增加早晨自然光線照射的時間，早睡早起。"她說。"如果你的作息時間比較規律，這是最容易不過的了，這樣你每天都能在同一時刻醒來。"