为何我再也无法在周末睡懒觉?

Why Can't I Sleep In on Weekends Anymore? 

为何我再也无法在周末睡觉？

Sleeping in is one of the best parts of the weekend. After a long, exhausting work week, sometimes all you want to do is sleep. On Friday night, you slide under the covers, smiling in anticipation. Now you can finally catch up on your sleep. 

睡觉是周末最棒的地方之一。在漫长而疲惫的工作日后，有时你唯一想做的就是睡觉。在周五晚上，你钻进被窝，带着美好的期盼微笑着。现在你终于可以弥补你的睡眠了。

Except you can’t. When you open your eyes Saturday morning, it’s still early. If this were a weekday, you’d be up before your alarm. So what’s the deal?

然而你不行。当你周六早上睁开眼时，时间还早。如果这还是个工作日，你在闹钟响之前就醒了。那么这是为什么呢？

We hate to break it to you, but you’ve pretty much done this to yourself. Your body is very good at recognizing patterns and adjusting accordingly. If you’ve got a 9-to-5 job, you’re getting up early five days a week. This effectively sets your body clock to wake you at a certain time each day.

我们不想向你拆穿，但这大多是你自己的原因。你的身体非常擅长识别模式然后以此做调整。如果你有一份朝九晚五的工作，你一周5天都早起。这有效地设定了你的生物钟，每天都在特定的时间把你叫醒。

Waking up may feel instantaneous, but it’s actually a pretty gradual process. About an hour before you wake, your blood pressure and body temperature rise, as do levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Minute by minute, you become more alert until you’re completely awake. You can shut off your alarm clock, but your body clock will just keep ticking.

醒来或许感觉是瞬间发生的，但事实上这是个循序渐进的过程。在你醒来的一个小时前，你的血压和体温上升，同时还有压力荷尔蒙的水平，比如皮质醇。时间一点点过去，你越来越清醒直到彻底醒来。你可以关掉你的闹钟，但你的生物钟还会继续走着。

There’s another reason that you probably don’t want to think about: You’re just not as young as you used to be. We need less sleep as we get older. Babies need between 16 and 20 hours. Teenagers should (but often don’t) get nine hours a night. Younger and middle-aged adults need about eight hours of sleep a night. In general, the older you get, the harder it is to snooze the day away.

还有另一个你或许不愿意想的原因：你再也不像曾经那样年轻了。我们长大后所需的睡眠时间变少了。婴儿需要16到20个小时的睡眠。青少年应该每晚睡9个小时（但经常不能）。年轻和中年人需要大概8个小时的睡眠。总体来说，你年纪越大，睡得越少。Even if you do manage to sleep in, you may never fully catch up on your sleep. If your body needs eight hours every night and you only get six or seven from Monday to Friday, you’d have to sleep an extra five to ten hours on Saturday to make it up. And experts say even that may not be enough.

即使你真的设法睡着了，你或许永远也不能完全补上你的睡眠。如果你的身体每晚需要8个小时的睡眠，而你只从周一到周五睡了6或7个小时，那么你需要在周六补上5到10个小时。并且专家说或许这都不够。

The bottom line: Sleep when you can, and enjoy those extra weekend morning hours. Who doesn’t want a longer weekend?

最后一句：能睡多少睡多少，享受那些周末额外的早晨。谁不想要一个长点儿的周末呢？