英国和澳大利亚的科学家表示，调整睡眠习惯可以改变人体的生物钟，改善人们的健康状况。

文字稿

Life can be hard for night owls. Their bodies are hard-wired to stay up late into the night. And a morning alarm clock can force them to get up for work hours before their body is ready.

生活对于夜猫子来说可能会比较艰难。他们的身体天生就会熬夜。早晨的闹钟总是迫使他们在自己身体准备好之前起床工作。

The study looked at 21 people who were regularly going to bed after 2am. They were instructed to get up and go to bed at the same times every day, do so hours earlier than usual, get loads of sunlight in the morning and have fixed meal times.

这项研究对21名经常在凌晨两点以后睡觉的人进行了跟踪调查。研究人员要求他们每天在相同的时间起床和睡觉 —— 这比平时早几个小时，上午多晒太阳，用餐时间也要固定。

On average people shifted their body clocks two hours earlier, were getting the same total shuteye but were reporting lower levels of sleepiness, stress and depression. The researchers said their methods may seem like obvious advice for good sleep hygiene, but they were surprised how effective such relatively simple strategies were.

平均来看，他们的生物钟提前了两个小时，总体睡眠时间和以往相同，但困倦、压力和抑郁的程度有所降低。研究人员说，虽然他们的方法看似是对养成良好睡眠卫生习惯最直白的建议，但他们对这个相对简单的方法的效果感到惊讶。

1. 词汇

night owls 夜猫子
hard-wired 本能的，天生的
alarm clock 闹钟
instructed 被指示
sunlight 日光，阳光
body clocks 生物钟
shuteye 睡眠
sleepiness 困倦，睡意
strategies 策略，方法

2. 阅读理解：请在读完上文后，回答下列问题 。

1. What is the problem that night owls face when their alarm clock goes off in the morning?

2. When were people taking part in the sleep study told to have their meals?

3. How much more sleep did the people taking part in this study get when they went to
sleep two hours earlier?

4. True or false? Going to bed after 2am and getting sunlight in the morning were two changes that were found to help people feel less sleepy during the day.

3. 答案

1. What is the problem that night owls face when their alarm clock goes off in the morning?
A morning alarm clock can force night owls to get up for work hours before their body is ready.

2. When were people taking part in the sleep study told to have their meals?
They were told to eat at the same time every day – at fixed meal times.

3. How much more sleep did the people taking part in this study get when they went to sleep two hours earlier?
On average, people who shifted their body clocks two hours earlier were getting the same total shuteye, but were reporting lower levels of sleepiness, stress and depression.

4. True or false? Going to bed after 2am and getting sunlight in the morning were two changes that were found to help people feel less sleepy during the day.
False. The study looked at 21 people who were regularly going to bed after 2am but were told that during the study, they should get loads of morning sunlight.