If you find yourself hitting the snooze button(闹钟延时按钮) every morning, don't blame yourself. Your work schedule could be to blame.
Research now shows that, for many of us, our work schedules don't go with our natural body clocks—and experts are urging employers to take notice. Sleep is a "strategic resource" that most companies are ignoring. When work schedules are aligned with people's natural sleep patterns, they produce higher quality and more innovative work because they are more focused, less stressed and generally healthier. The opposite is also true—when employees are not getting enough sleep they are more likely to make major mistakes and suffer from workplace injuries.
But it's not just about the amount of sleep you get. It's important that people recognize every living thing, from primitive bacteria to human beings, has a biologically determined internal body clock. This determines whether you are a night owl(夜猫子), an early bird or somewhere in the middle. We don't have any choice. "It's like feet," said Till Roenneberg, a professor of chronobiology(生物钟学). "Some people are born with big feet and some with small feet, but most people are somewhere in the middle."
Many companies start the workday at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., putting their work schedules in disagreement with their employees' body clock. This mismatch, along with the pressure to be productive and be available to respond to email or take calls at all hours of the day and night, means that many people suffer from what is called "social jet lag" .
