Ever wonder why, no matter how hard you try, you can’t be one of those exercisers who jog 5km every dawn.

有没有想过为何不管怎么努力，你都无法像那些专业锻炼者一样每天晨跑五千米?

Stop blaming yourself. It’s not because you lack discipline, it’s because your body isn’t programmed to work out at that hour.

不要怪自己，这并不是因为你缺乏自律，而是因为你的身体在那个时间并未将训练这一项纳入“程序”。

According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal website, a growing number of research suggests that we should pay more attention to our body clock when we make daily plans.

《华尔街日报》网站上的一篇最新报道称，有越来越多的研究表明，当制定日常计划时，我们应该更加关注自身的生物钟。

Our body clock, or natural body rhythm, influences our energy and alertness. Paying attention to it can help us pinpoint the different times of day when we best perform specific tasks – from thinking creatively to exercising.

我们的生物钟，或者说是生理节奏，会影响我们的精力和机敏度。关注生物钟能帮助我们精确地找到一天中的哪个时段，做哪项工作效率最高，无论是创造性思考还是锻炼身体。

The reality, however, is that most of us organize their time around work demands, school deadlines, commuting or social events. Doing whatever your body feels like doing is a luxury in today’s fast-paced modern society.

而事实上，我们中大多数人都在根据工作需要、课程期限、通勤或是社交活动来安排时间表。在快节奏的现代社会中，身体想做什么就去做什么是一件十分奢侈的事。

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. Obeying our body clock has significant health benefits. Disrupting our natural body rhythm, on the other hand, has been linked to problems such as depression and obesity, says Steve Key, a biology professor at the University of Southern California.

但这并不代表该做法不值得一试。遵循生物钟对身体健康十分有益。来自南加州大学的生物学教授史蒂夫? 凯表示，从另一方面来说，一旦打破我们的生理节奏，可能导致忧郁、肥胖等问题的产生。

When the body clock can synchronize the rhythms of its natural processes in response to light and other natural influences, it “gives us an edge in daily life”, says Kay.

史蒂夫?凯说：当生物钟在光线以及其他自然因素影响下，与自然节奏同步时，它便会为我们的日常生活增添砝码。

According to him, when it comes to cognitive work, most adults perform best in the late morning. As our body temperature starts to rise just before awakening in the morning and continues to increase until midday, our memory, alertness and concentration gradually improve.

史蒂夫表示，就认知型工作而言，大多数成年人在临近中午时工作状态最佳。由于我们的体温刚好在清晨起床前开始上升，并且持续增长直到中午，我们的记忆力、机敏度和注意力也在逐步提升。

However, our ability to concentrate typically starts to diminish soon thereafter. Most of us are more easily distracted between noon and 4 pm.

而紧接着，我们的注意力通常会开始下降。我们中的大多数人从中午到下午四点这个时间段里都很难集中精力。

Alertness also tends to fall after eating a meal and sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm, making that a good time for a nap.

在用餐过后，机敏度也开始下降;下午两点左右达到瞌睡高峰，因此这是小睡的绝佳时机。

Surprisingly, tiredness may boost our creative powers. For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best tackled in the evening when they are tired, according to a study in the journal Thinking & Reasoning.

令人意外的是，疲劳能够激发我们的创造力。一项刊登在《思考和推理》杂志上的研究表明，对于大多数成年人而言，那些需要用开放性的思维来解决的问题，最佳处理时间往往是在晚上人们感觉疲劳的时候。

This is because tiredness allows the mind to wander more freely to explore alternative solutions.

这是因为疲劳能让思维得到更自由的发散，去寻求不同的解决方案。

When choosing a time of day to exercise, paying attention to your body clock can improve results. Physical performance is usually best, and the risk of injury least, from about 3 to 6 pm, says Michael Smolensky, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Texas.

在选择每日锻炼时间的时候，关注生物钟能提升锻炼效果。德克萨斯大学生物医学工程教授迈克尔?斯莫伦斯基表示：下午三点到六点这个时段中，身体状态通常最佳，受伤风险也最低。

Muscle strength tends to peak between 2 and 6 pm. And joints and muscles are as much as 20 percent more flexible in the evening, lowering the risk of injury, according to Smolensky.

斯莫伦斯基表示，肌肉力量一般在下午两点到六点之间达到顶峰。关节和肌肉在晚间的灵活性比其他时间高20%，从而降低受伤几率。

Another boost for physical strength comes from the lungs, which function 17.6 percent more efficiently at 5 pm than at midday.

另一个增强体力的因素来自肺部。下午五点时肺部的效率要比午间高17.6%。

Of course, not everyone’s body clock is the same, making it even harder to synchronize natural rhythms with daily plans. But research shows that if people don’t follow a typical body clock, they operate on either of two distinctive patterns: Morning people tend to wake up and go to sleep earlier and to be most productive early in the day. Evening people tend to wake up later, start more slowly and peak in the evening.

当然，每个人的生物钟都不尽相同，这使得将日常计划与自然生理节奏同步变得难上加难。而研究表明，如果一个人不遵循典型的生物钟，那么他/她便会选择两种与众不同的行事方法中的一种：“百灵鸟”型人群往往比一般人早睡早起，白天的工作效率最高;“夜猫子”型人群起床较晚，进入状态较慢，最高效的时间是在晚上。