调整你身体时钟的五种方法

 When you go to bed and when you get up are keystones to restful, refreshing¹ sleep. Once you learn to synchronize² your body's biological clock, your body will know when to sleep and when to be alert.

1. Wake at the Same Time Every Day. A good night's sleep actually starts in the morning. The second your eyes flutter open, light shoots down the optic nerve and into the brain's biological clock. There it stimulates³ the production of a smorgasbord of hormones⁴ that regulate growth, reproduction, eating, sleeping, thinking, remembering -- even how you feel from minute to minute. “Sunlight activates⁵ the brain," says Frisca L. Yan-Go, M.D., medical director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders⁶ Center. And activating⁷ it at the same time every morning synchronizes⁸ your body's biological clock. Then your body has a clear direction that at midnight it's supposed to be asleep and at noon it's supposed to be awake. Wake up at a different time every day and the clock is out of sync. You feel groggy⁹ and hangover for hours, and even when you start to feel a bit more alert after that first Starbucks, you really never achieve the mental edge of which you're capable.

2. Hit the Sheets Only When Sleepy. No, not just tired. Sleepy, as in your eyes are droopy and you keep losing track of what people are saying to you.

3. Get Up. Sleeping from 11:30 P.M. until 2:00 A.M., tossing and turning until 4, then sleeping until 6 gives you eight hours in bed but only 4 1/2 hours of sleep. That's a huge mismatch that can actually inhibit¹⁰ your sleep drive and cause insomnia¹¹ all by itself. To prevent that from exacerbating¹³ your sleep issues, when you wake at 2:00 A.M., get up and go read a book in the living room. Being up increases your sleep drive -- which just could make you sleepy enough to actually fall asleep when you return to bed. One caveat¹⁴: Don't stay in bed when you're awake. A part of your mind will begin to associate the bed with being awake rather than being asleep. And that can turn on a nasty "I'm-not-going-to-sleep!" anxiety that will rev¹² your engines whenever you get into bed. It's one of the most insidious¹⁵ -- and potent¹⁶ -- causes of chronic¹⁷ insomnia.

4. Give Yourself an Hour. The one right before bed. You need it to wind down and transition from the woman-who-can-do-everything into the woman-who-can-sleep. Unfortunately, most women are not giving themselves one single second. According to the 2007 National Sleep Foundation poll, during the hour before bed, around 60 percent of us do household chores, 37 percent take care of children, 36 percent do activities with other family members, 36 percent are on the Internet, and 21 percent do work related to their jobs.

5. Beware Sunday Night Insomnia. Staying up late on Friday and Saturday nights and sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday mornings is frequently the gift we give ourselves on weekends after a hard week at work. Yet that little gift -- small as it is -- is enough to screw up our biological clocks. Even if you get to bed early on Sunday night, you will not be ready to sleep, and you will not end up being the happy camper you were expecting come Monday morning.

何时睡觉和何时起床是获得使人休息充分、精神焕发的睡眠的关键。一旦你学会了如何调整身体的时钟，你的身体就知道什么时候睡觉、什么时候要清醒。

1 每天定时醒来

一宿好觉实际上从清晨开始。你眼睛睁开的那一刻，光线照射在视神经上，传入大脑的生物钟里。在那里它刺激一种瑞典自助餐式的荷尔蒙生产，荷尔蒙能调节生长、生殖、饮食、睡眠、思考、记忆－－甚至你每一分钟的感觉如何。“阳光激活大脑，”加州大学洛杉矶分校睡眠障碍中心的医学主任，弗里斯卡?L? 严戈博士说。每天早晨在同一时刻激活大脑就校对了人的生物钟。于是你的身体就获得了明确的指示，在半夜它应该睡觉，在中午它要清醒。每天起床的时间不同，生物钟就会紊乱。你会几个小时感觉眩晕、像宿醉一般难受，即使你在喝了一杯星巴克咖啡后感觉好点，你也决不能表现出你的最佳状态。

2 只有当困倦的时候才就寝

光是累了不行，只有困倦得眼皮也睁不开，别人对你说什么都听不进去时才去睡。

3 睡不着时就起床

从夜里11点睡到凌晨2点，然后翻来覆去睡不着到4点，接着又睡到6点，你在床上待了8个小时却只有4个半小时的睡眠。这种严重的不一致，本身就很可能抑制你的睡意，导致失眠。要预防你的睡眠问题恶化，当你在凌晨2点醒来的时候，起床到起居室看一会书。起来不睡会增加你的睡意－－这就能使你困得在回到床上时倒头就睡。有一点要注意：醒着的时候不要待在床上。你的一部分意识会把床同清醒而不是睡意相联系，这会引发一种危险的“我睡不着觉”的焦虑，无论何时你上床，它都会使你的马达倒转。这是一种最不为人觉察的－－也是潜在的－－慢性失眠的原因。

4 给自己一小时时间放松

上床前一小时，你需要放松发条，把自己从什么都能干的女人变成想睡觉的女人。不幸的是，多数妇女连一秒钟也不给自己。根据2007年国家睡眠基金会的一次调查，在睡觉前的一小时内，大约60％的妇女做家务，37％的人照顾孩子，36％的人和家人一起做事，36％的人上网，还有21％的人在干与工作有关的活。

5 小心周日晚上的失眠症

周五、周六晚上待到很晚不睡，周六和周日早上睡过头，经常是我们在一周辛苦工作之后奖励自己的小礼物。然而，这份小礼物－－尽管它不大－－也足够把我们的生物钟全毁掉。即使你在周日晚早早上床，你也没准备好睡觉，当周一来临的时候，你也不能像自己期待的那样，像个快活的露营者。 

1 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

2 synchronize   

v.使同步 [=synchronise]

参考例句：

• The sound on a film must synchronize with the action. 影片中的声音必须与动作配合一致。
• You must synchronize your Inbox before selecting additional folders. 在选择其他文件夹前，您必须同步您的收件箱。

3 stimulates   

v.刺激( stimulate的第三人称单数 )；激励；使兴奋；起兴奋作用，起刺激作用，起促进作用

参考例句：

• Exercise stimulates the body. 运动促进身体健康。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Alcohol stimulates the action of the heart. 酒刺激心脏的活动。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

5 activates   

使活动，起动，触发( activate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Activates the window and displays it in its current size and position. 激活窗口，保持当前的大小及位置不变。
• Pulling out the alarm switch activates alarm and pushing it deactivates it. 闹钟的开和关是通过拔出和按入闹铃开关实现的。

6 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 activating   

活动的，活性的

参考例句：

• "I didn't say we'd got to stop activating the masses! “我并没说就此不发动！ 来自子夜部分
• Presumably both the very small size and activating influence of fluorine atoms contribute to this exception. 这大概是由于氟原子半径小和活性高这两个原因的影响，氟原子对这种例外做出了贡献。

8 synchronizes   

n.同步器( synchronize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This service synchronizes contacts between your desktop computer and your mobile device. 此服务对桌面计算机和移动设备中的联系人进行同步处理。 来自互联网
• This service synchronizes tasks between your desktop computer and your mobile device. 此服务对桌面计算机和移动设备中的任务进行同步处理。 来自互联网

9 groggy   

adj.体弱的；不稳的

参考例句：

• The attack of flu left her feeling very groggy.她患流感后非常虚弱。
• She was groggy from surgery.她手术后的的情况依然很不稳定。

10 inhibit   

vt.阻止，妨碍，抑制

参考例句：

• Don't let ego and greed inhibit clear thinking and hard work.不要让自我和贪婪妨碍清晰的思维和刻苦的工作。
• They passed a law to inhibit people from parking in the street.他们通过一项法令以阻止人们在街上停车。

11 insomnia   

n.失眠，失眠症

参考例句：

• Worries and tenseness can lead to insomnia.忧虑和紧张会导致失眠。
• He is suffering from insomnia.他患失眠症。

12 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

13 exacerbating   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. 这种教学张力不足加重了社会不平等。 来自互联网
• High fertilizer prices are exacerbating the problem. 高涨的肥料价格更加加剧了问题的恶化。 来自互联网

14 caveat   

n.警告； 防止误解的说明

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling.为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。
• As I have written before,that's quite a caveat.正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。

15 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

16 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

17 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。