VOA慢速英语2019--长时间通勤者普遍缺觉且运动不足

People who work long hours and have long commutes² to their jobs may be more likely to have sleep problems and not get enough exercise, a new study suggests.

Researchers in Sweden carried out the study. They looked at people who work more than 40 hours a week and commute¹ more than half an hour each way on an average day. The researchers found that those people had a 25-percent higher risk for having an inactive lifestyle and a 16-percent higher risk of having sleep problems.

Jaana Halonen is the study's lead writer. She is with Stockholm University and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland. She said sleep problems may happen from "lack of time for stress-releasing activities and relaxation³." She also said people with long workdays and a long commute may be too tired to be physically⁴ active.

The study recently appeared in the publication Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

In the past, researchers have linked long work hours to unhealthy behaviors like physical inactivity, smoking and poor eating choices. However, little is known about the combined effects of working long hours and having long commutes over time.

Many surveyed

For this study, researchers questioned more than 22,000 working-age adults at least two times between 2008 and 2018. And they asked them about their work and commute hours, as well as how much they exercised and slept. The researchers also asked the study subjects how often they smoked and drank alcohol.

Many of those questioned had a usual way of getting to work that remained unchanged during the study period. But 14 percent had commute times change once during the study, and about 5 percent had commute times change at least twice.

Among people who normally worked less than 40 hours a week, the study found that commute time had little effect on habits such as drinking alcohol, smoking or exercising.

The researchers did lack data on how people commuted⁵. This makes it unclear if a commuter⁶ had an inactive method for getting to work, like driving a car, or if their commute included some form of exercise.

"We know walking and cycling for commuting⁷ tend to be associated with better health," said Oliver Mytton. He is a researcher at Britain's University of Cambridge and was not involved in the study.

Mytton told Reuters that "there is clearly a message here about when choosing a job with a long commute." He said that people should think about the effects that their job situation may have on their health.

Not everyone has much choice over where they work, or the chance to work from home, Mytton noted⁸. But he said that this "suggests there is a role for employers (and governments) to show flexibility⁹ to employees' needs."

Words in This Story

commute – n. to travel regularly to and from a place and especially between where you live and where you work

habit – n. a usual way of behaving, something one does often and in a regular and repeated way

tend – v. used to describe what often happens or what someone often does or is likely to do

flexibility – adj. willing to change or to try different things

1 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

2 commutes   

上下班路程( commute的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She commutes from Oxford to London every day. 她每天上下班往返于牛津与伦敦之间。
• Barbara lives in Oxford and commutes. 芭芭拉住在牛津，通勤往来。

3 relaxation   

n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐

参考例句：

• The minister has consistently opposed any relaxation in the law.部长一向反对法律上的任何放宽。
• She listens to classical music for relaxation.她听古典音乐放松。

4 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

5 commuted   

通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment. 他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• The death sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment. 死刑可能減为无期徒刑。

6 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

7 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

9 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。