Hollywood star and two-time Academy Award nominee¹ Mark Wahlberg revealed this week that he wakes at 2:30am daily, launching into a regimen that includes a 90-minute workout, golf, prayer and recovering in a “cryo-chamber”. By 7:30 that night, he’s in bed.

曾两次获得奥斯卡奖提名的好莱坞明星沃尔伯格（Mark Wahlberg）本周告诉记者，他每天凌晨两点半起床，开始一套为时一个半小时的养生套餐——包括健身、高尔夫、祈祷和“冷疗”康复，然后每天晚上7点半睡觉。

He’s not the only high-profile early-riser. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly gets up at 3:45am, and Disney boss Bob Iger has a 4:25am scheduled workout that has apparently² inspired NBA players to hit the gym earlier.

他不是唯一一个出了名的早起的人。据报道，苹果公司首席执行官库克（Tim Cook）凌晨3点45分起床，而迪士尼老板伊格尔（Bob Iger）凌晨4点25分的预定训练显然激发了NBA球员更早起床去健身房。

On LinkedIn and in profiles of corporate³ leaders, there’s often a common thread – if you want to be successful, get up early.

领英（LinkedIn）里企业领导者的简介中，通常有一个共同点——如果想要成功，那就早起吧！

So should we all become super-early birds? Would it help us be more productive? It might – but there’s a cost. And possibly a hidden desire to impress people with just how “productive” we are with pre-dawn wake-up calls.

所以，我们都应该早起吗？早起真的会提高工作效率吗？即便确实如此，也是要付出代价的，而且很有可能隐藏了我们不欲为人知的欲望，即黎明前的叫醒服务只是为了给人营造一种“工作效率高”的印象。

While a 2:30am start would suggest an extremely long day and almost no sleep, Wahlberg’s early bedtime suggests he’s running on a respectable seven hours each night.

虽然凌晨两点半起床意味着白天非常漫长而且不能休息，但是沃尔伯格的早睡让他每晚仍有七个小时的睡眠。

This is important for productivity – a lack of sleep takes huge tolls⁴ on your health and cognitive⁵ ability.

充足的睡眠对工作效率非常重要——睡眠不足会严重影响人们的身体健康和认知能力。

Two American researchers, Christopher Barnes and Gretchen Spreitzer, from the University of Washington and University of Michigan respectively, have looked at this topic extensively. They examine such things as whether companies should make sure their employees are getting enough sleep.

华盛顿大学和密歇根大学的两位美国研究人员巴恩斯（Christopher Barnes）和斯伯莱茨（Gretchen Spreitzer）对这一主题进行了广泛研究。他们考察企业是否应确保员工有充足的睡眠。

Spreitzer thinks that, in Wahlberg’s case, he’s simply shifting his waking hours to a different (albeit extreme) start time, and he actually probably is being more productive.

斯伯莱茨认为，沃尔伯格只是将他清醒时间段的起始时间提早了（尽管是极端的），而他实际上很可能工作效率更高。

“There are some advantages: you create discipline where you have a lot more time for yourself – to get your own goals done before the family gets up, before colleagues want to meet with you,” she says.

她说：“这么做的优势是：你可以养成自律的习惯，在家人起床或者协助同事之前有更多时间完成自己的目标。”

But going to bed so early can lead to “sacrificing his social network and ability to develop strong social relationships,” which are necessary for good mental health.

但是这么早睡可能会“错失自己的社交关系网，甚至失去社交能力”，而这些对身心健康非常重要。

“I’m guessing if you’re going to bed at 7:30, you’re missing out on a lot of nice dinner conversations with family where you’re not falling asleep, or social activities with friends,” she says.

她说：“我认为，如果你晚上7点半就睡觉，会错过和家人一起用餐聊天或者和朋友社交的机会。”

Could being a super early bird be in your blood, though?

尽管如此，早起狂人是基因所致吗？

Larks⁶ and owls⁷

百灵鸟和猫头鹰

Humans and their sleep patterns are guided by circadian patterns – that is, 24-hour internal clocks that trigger alertness and sleepiness at regular intervals⁸. Many tend to wake up and want to go to bed at the same time each day – that’s why jet lag can be such a shock to our bodies as we cross time zones.

人类的睡眠模式受生物钟节奏的影响——即24小时内有规律的清醒和困倦。许多人往往每天会在同一时间醒来并在同一时间上床睡觉——这就是为什么当我们前往不同时区时，时差会影响我们的作息。

Based on these circadian patterns, researchers group people into two broad groups: larks (early risers and sleepers) and owls (late risers and sleepers).

根据这些生物钟节奏，研究人员将人类分为两大类：百灵鸟（早睡早起者）和猫头鹰（晚睡晚起者）。

Barnes says there is some natural variation across the population, but that many of us tend to be larks as children, veer⁹ toward owls as adolescents, and as we get older, sway back to larkhood.

巴恩斯说，不同人群会有一些自然差异，但是通常许多人在幼年时期像百灵鸟；在青壮年时期又像猫头鹰；到中老年时期又回到百灵鸟状态。

But he reckons that the number of people out there who might be “super larks” that naturally wake up at 2:30am like Mark Wahlberg are exceedingly rare.

但他认为像沃尔伯格那样凌晨两点半自然醒来的“超级百灵鸟”非常稀少。

“Psychologically and behaviourally, you’re best off if you match your schedule to your own natural circadian rhythm,” Barnes says.

巴恩斯说：“从身心健康的角度来看，如果你的日程安排符合你的生物钟节奏，那就是最好的状态。”

And some people who subscribe¹⁰ to extreme schedules – and then tell everyone about it – might be driven by a different motivation.

一些人日程安排与众不同，且又到处宣传，可能另有目的。

But why do so many people like to brag¹¹ about how soon they start their day? It may simply be to conjure¹² the illusion that they’re being productive. What’s more, many societies have a bias¹³ that skews toward favouring people who get up early.

为什么有这么多人喜欢吹嘘自己早起呢？他们可能只是想制造出自己工作效率高的假象。此外，社会群体往往存在一种偏见，偏向和喜爱早起的人。

One study in 2014 looked at 120 working adults and found that those who started work later in the day received worse performance ratings from their supervisors¹⁴, who perceived them to be less conscientious¹⁵ employees. What’s more, supervisors who were “owls” were less likely to perceive late starters negatively than those supervisors who were “larks.”

2014年的一项研究针对120名在职成年人进行了调查，结果发现主管对上班晚的员工绩效评级较差，因为觉得他们不够尽责。此外，相比“百灵鸟”型主管，“猫头鹰”型主管对上班晚的同事有负面看法的概率较小。

“People have a bias in how they evaluate your work schedule. You’re viewed more favourably¹⁶ if you start your day early,” Barnes says. “What are you trying to maximise? Are you trying to impress people?”

巴恩斯说：“评估员工的工作日程存在偏见，上班早就会被肯定，那么你想放大什么？你希望给别人留下好印象吗？”

At the end of the day – if you will – you need to listen to your body, take its cues, and know when to rest. And while starting your day early may indeed make you more productive, ask yourself why you’re doing it: is it really to get more done? Or to try to convince yourself, or others, of that?

当一天结束的时候，如果你可以自由安排，你应该根据身体状况行事，知道什么时候该休息了。虽然早一点上班可能会让你更有效率，但还是要问问自己为什么要这样做：早起是否真的会有更多产出？或者只是为了让自己或者别人相信自己更有效率？

Whatever the reason, your health should come first. Barnes’ research shows that this includes struggling to stay awake, and even an increased tendency to engage in unethical behaviour.

不管是何原因，健康应是第一位的。巴恩斯的研究表明，不健康包括强迫自己保持清醒。如果这样，不道德行为的概率甚至也会增加。

“When you’re low energy and not at your best, bad things are going to happen,” Barnes says.

巴恩斯说：“在你疲惫或者状态不佳的时候，不好的事情就会降临。”