It is 10pm in the Madrid neighbourhood of La Latina, one of the city’s oldest areas, and the cobbled streets thrum with the sounds of people enjoying plates of gambas al ajillo and cocido Madrileño. Restaurants are bustling¹ at an hour when, in most other countries, chefs would be hanging up their aprons² for the night.

晚上10点，在马德里最古老的地段拉拉提纳，圆石铺就的街道上仍然人声鼎沸，人们品尝着蒜味虾和马德里烩菜。虽然这个时间点，大多数其他国家的餐厅已经打烊了，但这里的餐厅仍然人潮涌动。

While travellers might attribute Spain’s late mealtimes to the country’s laidback Mediterranean³ attitude, the real reason is a little more peculiar⁴. Spaniards are living in the wrong time zone, and have been for more than 70 years.

尽管游客们可能会认为西班牙晚餐时间晚，是因为这个国家地中海式的闲适生活态度，但真正的原因有些奇怪。70多年以来，西班牙人一直生活在错误的时区里。

Glance at a map and you’ll realise that Spain – sitting, as it does, along the same longitude⁵ as the UK, Portugal and Morocco – should be in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). But Spain goes by Central European Time (CET), putting it in sync with the Serbian capital Belgrade, more than 2,500km east of Madrid.

扫一眼地图，你就会知道西班牙坐落的经度与英国、葡萄牙和摩洛哥相同，因此应该采用格林尼治时间。然而，西班牙依照的是欧洲中部时间，与位于马德里东部2500多千米的塞尔维亚首都贝尔格莱德时间同步。

So why are Spaniards living behind their geographic⁶ time zone?

所以为什么西班牙人要按照落后于他们地理时区的时区生活呢？

In 1940, General Francisco Franco changed Spain’s time zone, moving the clocks one hour forward in solidarity⁷ with Nazi⁸ Germany.

1940年，弗朗西斯科•佛朗哥将军改变了西班牙的时区，将时间往前调了一小时，与纳粹德国保持一致。

For Spaniards, who at the time were utterly⁹ devastated¹⁰ by the Spanish Civil War, complaining about the change did not even cross their minds. They continued to eat at the same time, but because the clocks had changed, their 1pm lunches became 2pm lunches, and they were suddenly eating their 8pm dinners at 9pm.

那时西班牙人正因内战而苦不堪言，完全没心思去抱怨时间的更改。他们仍然在相同的时间点用餐，但因为记时的方式改变，他们午饭的时间也就由下午一点改为两点，以往晚上8点的晚餐时间也突然之间变成了9点。

After World War II ended, the clocks were never changed back. However, in 2016, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the government was working on a plan to implement¹¹ a new workday schedule ending at 6pm as opposed to 8pm. One important element of the plan was evaluating the possibility of changing Spain’s time zone from CET to GMT – something that has sparked a heated discussion throughout the country.

二战结束后，这个记时方式也没有再改回来，但2016年，西班牙总理马里亚诺•拉霍伊宣布，政府正在计划实施一个新的工作日日程，其中包括将下班时间由下午8点改为6点。这份计划最重要的一点，就是估算有没有可能，将西班牙的时区由欧洲中部时间改回格林尼治时间，这在全国引发了激烈的讨论。

Being 60 minutes behind the correct time zone means the sun rises later and sets later, bestowing¹² Spain with gloriously long summer evenings and 10pm sunsets. Those who run Spain’s tourist resorts believe that more sunlight is a large draw for visitors. The regional government of the Balearic Islands is strongly against returning to GMT and has even campaigned to maintain year-round summer time to allow visitors to take full advantage of the region’s mild winter climate.

落后正确的时区60分钟意味着，太阳升起和落下的时间会往后推迟，这使西班牙享受到夏日极长的夜晚，以及晚上10点的落日。西班牙旅游度假区的负责人认为，更长的日照时间对游客吸引力很大。巴利阿里群岛政府强烈反对重新改回格林尼治时间，甚至倡议全年都保持夏令时，以使得游客能够充分享受巴利阿里群岛冬日温和的气候。

But for many Spaniards, living in the wrong time zone has resulted in sleep deprivation¹³ and decreased productivity. The typical Spanish work day begins at 9am; after a two-hour lunch break between 2 and 4pm, employees return to work, ending their day around 8pm. The later working hours force Spaniards to save their social lives for the late hours. Prime-time television doesn’t start until 10:30pm.

然而，对许多西班牙人来说，在错误的时区生活已经造成睡眠不足以及工作效率下降的问题。西班牙人工作日一般从早上9点开始，2点到4点这两小时进行午休，之后重新开始工作，大约晚上8点结束一天的工作。较晚的工作时间迫使西班牙人将社交生活挪到较晚的时间点。黄金时间的电视也是晚上10:30才开始。

Meanwhile, in the northwestern region of Galicia, the sun doesn’t rise until after 9am in winter, meaning that residents are starting their day in the dark.

同时，在西北地区的加利西亚，冬季太阳在9点后才升起，这让很多居民要在黑夜中开始一天的生活。

“The fact that the time in Spain doesn’t correspond to the sun affects health, especially sleep,” said José Luis Casero, president of the National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Schedules, an organisation¹⁴ that has been campaigning for Spain to return to the correct time zone since 2006. “If we changed time zones, the sun would rise one hour earlier and we’d wake up more naturally, meal times would be one hour earlier and we’d get an extra hour’s sleep.”

“事实是，西班牙的时间与太阳的运转规律不符，影响了人们的健康，甚至是睡眠，”何塞•路易斯•卡西奥说道，他是西班牙时间表合理化委员会的主席，这个组织自2006年起一直倡导让西班牙重回正确的时区。“如果我们改变了时区，那么太阳就会提前一小时升起，我们的起床的时间也能更正常，晚餐时间将提前一小时，这样我们睡眠时间也能增加一小时。”

Spaniards have traditionally coped with their late nights by taking a mid-morning coffee break and a two-hour lunch break, giving them the opportunity to enjoy one of the country’s most infamous¹⁵ traditions: the siesta¹⁶.

西班牙人习惯通过上午的咖啡时间和两小时的午休来熬夜，这使他们有机会享受西班牙最臭名远扬的传统：午睡。

Changing the workday would threaten Spaniards’ customary naptime, although whether or not citizens would mind is still up for debate. A January 2017 study by research company Simple Lógica found that less than 18% of Spaniards nap regularly, while nearly 60% never take a siesta. In fact, business owners in many of the country’s major cities and holiday resorts remain open during the midday break to cater¹⁷ to tourists.

尽管市民们是否介意仍是个有待商榷的问题，但改变工作日的时间将威胁到西班牙人习惯的午睡时间。2017年1月，Simple Lógica调查公司的研究发现，不到18%的西班牙人有固定的小憩时间，而将近60%的西班牙人从来不午睡。事实上，西班牙主要城市和度假区的商业门店在午休时间照常营业，以迎合游客需求。

Meanwhile, those who do nap express frustration¹⁸ when changes in their daily routine prevent them from sleeping mid-day.

同时，这些会小憩的人表达了不满，因为改变他们的日常作息使他们无法睡午觉。

“We should really banish¹⁹ the siesta in Spain because it doesn’t fit with reality,” Casero said. “And with the change of time zone bringing meal times forward and giving us an extra hour of sleep, there would be less need for a rest at midday.”

“我们真的应该改掉西班牙午睡的习惯，因为这并不符合现实，”卡西奥说道，“并且如果时区改变能让用餐时间前移，增加一小时睡眠时间，那么午休也什么必要了。”

When it comes down to it, economist²⁰ Nuria Chinchilla, an expert in work-life balance at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa business school in Barcelona, feels that quality of life for Spaniards is more pressing than preserving an extra hour or two of evening light for tourists.

经济学家努里亚•钦奇利亚是巴塞罗那IESE商学院研究使工作与生活达到平衡的专家，他认为，归根结底，西班牙人的生活质量比给游客们留出晚上一两小时的日照时间更重要。

“We have continuous jetlag,” she said. “Tourism will always be there and tourists don’t care. The number of hours of sunlight will be the same, whether it is an extra hour in the morning or in the evening.”

“我们一直都在倒时差，”她说道，“旅游业一直存在，游客们也不会在意。日照时间还是一样的，只是早晚日照的差别而已。”