19 Knowing your body's patterns is no guarantee of good health. But what chronobiology reveals is the importance of regularity in all aspects of your life and of learning to act in synchronization with your body's natural rhythms.

让你的生物钟为你服务

1 当第一道曙光穿过黑暗洒在加里福尼亚硅谷的山冈上时，查尔斯·温格特便睁开了眼睛。才刚刚5点，温格特就急着要起床了。而他妻子则把被子望上拉了拉，把脸埋在了枕头下，”15年来”温格特说”我们几乎从未同时起床过”。

2 像温格特夫妇这样的情况并不少见，我们身体的运转像时钟一样复杂。而且像始终一样，我们每个人运转的速度也略有不同。温格特是一个早上精力充沛的人，而他妻子则是要到黄昏后才能到达最佳状态。

3 行为科学家们长期以来一直认为这些差异是个人异常习惯和早期训练的结果。但这种想法遭到了内科医生兼生物学家弗朗兹·哈尔博格称为时间生物学的一种理论的质疑。在哈佛大学的实验室研究中，哈尔博格博士发现根据抽血时间的不同，人体中某种血细胞的数量会发生可以预见的变化。在一天中的某个时间里，细胞数量会多一些，而12小时后数量会有所减少。他还发现在心跳速度、新陈代谢的速度以及体温方面也能观测到同样的变化模式。

4 哈尔博格的解释是：我们身体系统运转速度并不是一成不变的。大约每25小时为一个运转周期，有时速度加快，有时速度减慢。每天我们只有在一段有限的时间里达到最高效率。哈尔博格将这些身体的节奏称为”生理节奏”。

5 目前，时间生物学领域中许多处于领先地位的研究工作都是由国家航空和航天局资助的。查尔斯·温格特是国家航空和航天局的一名从事研究工作的生理学家，也是生理节奏方面的权威。他说在大多数航天飞机的飞行中人们已经应用生理节奏的原理来制定宇航员的工作日程。

6 这项太空时代的研究在地球上也能得到许多有益的应用。时间生理学家能告诉你什么时候进食能使你吃了东西却又能减轻体重，在一天中什么时候你应付最艰难的挑战的能力最强，什么时候去看牙医你最能忍得起疼痛，什么时候锻炼效果最佳。温格特说：”人体活动效率的生物规律是，要想花最小的力气取得最好的效果，就必须使你从事活动的需求与你的生物能力协调起来。”

7 生理节奏的规律可以用来为你服务。但你首先必须学会如何找出这些规律。温格特和他的同事们研究出了下面这个方法来帮助你找出自己身体的规律。

8 早晨起床一小时后量一次体温，然后再每隔四小时量一次。尽量把最后一次安排在就寝前。一天下来你应该得到了5个数据。

9 现在将你第一次、第三次和第五次的体温相加，把和记下来。然后将第二次和第四次的体温相加，将前面得到的和减去这次得到的和，其的数大约就是你午夜时的体温。可以把它当成第六次测量到的体温。

10 现在将六个数据标在坐标图纸上。这些数据之间的差异可能看上去极小——有时仅为差0.1度，但却十分重要，你可能会发现你的体温在凌晨三点到六点之间将开始上升，在中午前后的某个时候达到最高点。傍晚时体温开始下降，并持续下降，在凌晨两点左右到了最低点。

11 当然，最重要的是每个人之间存在着差异。你的体温在什么时间里处于上升状态?什么时候达到最高点?又在什么时候落到最低点呢?一旦你了解了自身的规律，你便能利用时间生物学的手段增强健康、提高生产率。

12 当我们的生物节奏处于顶峰时，干体力活效果最好。对大多数人来说，这种顶峰状

态持续四小时左右。因此你应该将最繁重的活动安排在你体温处于最高点的时候去做。

13 就脑力活动而言，如何安排时间就更复杂一些，从事精密度高的任务，如数学方面的工作，最佳时间是体温处于上升状态的时候。对大多数人来说，是在早晨八、九点钟。与此相反，阅读和思考工作最好在下午两点到四点间进行，这时候体温通常开始下降。

14 要想有效节食，一天进食量最大的应该是早餐。因为在我们醒后一小时的这段时间里，能量消耗的比晚上快。在一个历时六年，被称为”军队饮食研究”的研究项目中，哈尔伯格博士、时间生物学家罗伯特·萨森及其研究项目的合作者厄娜·哈尔伯格观察了两组男士和女士的进食情况。两组人都每天只吃一吨含2000卡路里热量的食物，但一组在早餐时吃，另一组则在晚饭时吃。”所有吃早餐的实验对象的体重都减轻了，”萨森说，”而那些吃晚饭的人的体重要么保持不变，要么有所增加。”

15 如果食物的消化过程在一天不同的时间里有所不同的话，那么咖啡因、酒精和药物也一定如此。诸如，复方阿司匹林在早晨七点至八点之间药性最强（酒精也是这样），在下午六点至午夜之间药效最差。咖啡因在下午三点左右作用最强。佛罗里达州的A&M大学药学院院长查尔斯·沃克解释说：”兴奋剂在你通常比较活跃的时间里效果非常好，而镇定剂在你本来就比较安静或已熟睡的这段时间里最有效。”

16 了解你自己的生物节奏还可以帮助你克服睡眠问题。参考一下你的体温的图表，你就寝的时间应该和你体温处于最低点的时间相一致。对大多数人来说，这个时间是在晚上11点到凌晨两点之间。

17 在纽约市蒙蒂菲奥里医疗中心睡眠紊乱中心工作的迈克尔·索佩博士提出了其它一些按照生物节奏调整睡眠的建议：每晚在同一时间上床睡觉，早晨在同一时间起床，周末也不例外。”入睡和醒来的时间缺乏规律是导致睡眠问题的最大原因，”索佩博士说。一夜没睡好觉的最好的恢复方法就是继续遵守你正常的作息时间。对服用安眠药要慎重。”大多数安眠药的作用只能维持两周”，索佩博士警告说。而且还存在血液中药物积淀的真正危险。

（看医生或牙医应在早晨尽量早或是晚上尽量晚的时候，因为从晚上八点到早晨八点之间你对疼痛的忍受力最强。

温格特和同在国家航空和宇宙航行局工作的时间生物学家查尔斯·德罗西亚还就如何缓解飞行时差反应所带来的疲劳提出了一些建议，在出发前一周左右开始调整日常活动时间，使之与你到达目的地的时间安排一致起来。旅行之前吃少量的高蛋白低糖食物。旅行前几天里应睡眠充足。飞行时少吃东西多喝水，避免饮用含酒精和咖啡因的饮料。到达目的地后，四处走走，与人交谈，努力适应你周围的环境。就寝之前，吃一些含糖量高的清淡食物。洗个热水澡。）

18 了解身体的规律并不能保证你身体健康。但是时间生物学揭示了在生活各方面都保持规律的重要性，同时它还表明，学会使你的行动与你身体的自然节奏同步也是至关重要的。

UNIT 6

The Eighth Tuesday we talk about money

I held up the newspaper so that Morrie could see it:

I DON'T WANT MY TOMBSTONE TO READ

I NEVER OWNED A NETWORK.\

Morrie laughed, then shook his head. The morning sun was coming through the window behind him, falling on the pink flowers of the hibiscus plant that sat on the sill. The quote was from Ted Turner, the billionaire media mogul, founder of CNN, who had been lamenting his inability to snatch up the CBS network in a corporate megadeal. I had brought the story to Morrie this morning because I wondered if Turner ever found himself in my old professor's position, his breath disappearing, his body turning to stone, his days being crossed off the calendar one by one-would he really be crying over owning a network?

\things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives. I think we should talk about that.\

Morrie was focused. There were good days and bad days now. He was having a good day. The night before, he had been entertained by a local a cappella group that had come to the

house to perform, and he relayed the story excitedly, as if the Ink Spots themselves had dropped by for a visit. Morrie's love for music was strong even before he got sick, but now it was so intense, it moved him to tears. He would listen to opera sometimes at night, closing his eyes, riding along with the magnificent voices as they dipped and soared.

\

Morrie had always been taken with simple pleasures, singing, laughing, dancing. Now, more than ever, material things held little or no significance. When people die, you always hear the expression \

\how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More

commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it-and have it repeated to us-over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.

\new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. `Guess what I got? Guess what I got?'

\were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.

\can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have.\

I glanced around Morrie's study. It was the same today as it had been the first day I arrived. The books held their same places on the shelves. The papers cluttered the same old desk. The outside rooms had not been improved or upgraded. In fact, Morrie really hadn't bought anything new-except medical equipment-in a long, long time, maybe years. The day he learned that he was terminally ill was the day he lost interest in his purchasing power.

So the TV was the same old model, the car that Charlotte drove was the same old model, the dishes and the silverware and the towels-all the same. And yet the house had changed so drastically. It had filled with love and teaching and communication. It had filled with friendship and family and honesty and tears. It had filled with colleagues and students and meditation teachers and therapists and nurses and a cappella groups. It had become, in a very real way, a wealthy home, even though Morrie's bank account was rapidly depleting.

\said. \don't need the latest sports car, you don't need the biggest house.

\satisfaction?\

\You sound like a Boy Scout.

\hard. There's a senior center that opened near here. Dozens of elderly people come there every day. If you're a young man or young woman and you have a skill, you are asked to come and teach it. Say you know computers. You come there and teach them computers. You are very welcome there. And they are very grateful. This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.

\people in hospitals and shelters who only want some companionship. You play cards with a lonely older man and you find new respect for yourself, because you are needed. \said about finding a meaningful life? I wrote it down, but now I can recite it: Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

\

I jotted some of the things Morrie was saying on a yellow pad. I did this mostly because I didn't want him to see my eyes, to know what I was thinking, that I had been, for much of my life since graduation, pursuing these very things he had been railing against-bigger toys, nicer house. Because I worked among rich and famous athletes, I convinced myself that my needs were realistic, my greed inconsequential compared to theirs.

This was a smokescreen. Morrie made that obvious. \people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.\

He paused, then looked at me. \

\enough pain and suffering of my own?

\house. Not what I look like in the mirror. When I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad, it's as close to healthy as I ever feel.

\you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back.\

He coughed and reached for the small bell that lay on the chair. He had to poke a few times at it, and I finally picked it up and put it in his hand.

\

\ 相约星期二

1 我把报纸举到莫里面前，他看见了上面的一行字： 2 “我不想在我的墓碑上写着” “我从未拥有过广播网。”

3 莫里笑了，然后摇摇头，早晨的阳光从他背后的窗户照射进来，落在窗台上那盆木槿的淡红叶子上。这句话是亿万富翁。有线电视新闻网的创始人，媒体大亨特德?特纳写的，他为未能在公司的一笔大买卖中得到哥伦比亚广播公司的广播网而哀叹。我今天早上把这条新闻告诉莫里是因为我突发奇想，要是特纳发觉自己处于莫里的境地，呼吸渐渐地衰竭，躯体慢慢地变成石头，日子一天天地从日历上划去--他还会为失去广播网而大恸大悲吗?

4 “这是同一个问题，米奇，”莫里说。”我们树立了错误的价值观，从而对生活产生了一种幻想破灭的失落感。我认为我们该谈谈这个问题。”

5 莫里的注意力集中起来。他现在时好时坏。今天的情况算是不错。前一天晚上，当地的一个清唱组合来为他作了表演，他异常兴奋他讲述着这件事，似乎上门来为他演唱的是黑斑组合（极有名的黑人歌手组合，共有四人）。莫里患病前就十分喜爱音乐，如今这份爱好更强烈了，音乐会感动得他热泪盈眶。他有时在晚上听歌剧，闭上眼睛陶醉在激昂的歌声中。

6 “米奇，你昨晚要是来听就好了。他们唱得棒极了！”

7 莫里一向很容易满足，唱歌，跳舞，欢笑对他来说都是莫大的乐趣。如今，物质生活对他越来越无所谓了。人死的时候，人们常说”生不带来，死不带去”。莫里似乎早就明白了这个道理。

8 “我们国家提倡灌输的教育形式，”莫里叹道。”你知道他们是怎样灌输的吗，他们对你一遍又一遍地重复，这就是我们国家的做法。拥有得越多越好。钱越多越好。财富越多越好。商业行为也是越多越好。越多越好。越多越好。我们反复地对别人这么说--别人又反复地对我们这么说--一遍又一遍，直到人人都认为这是真理。大多数人会受它迷惑而失去自己的判断能力。

9 “无论我生活在哪里，我都会遇到一些对新的东西充满了占有欲的人，想拥有新的汽车，想拥有新的财产，想拥有新的玩具。然后沾沾自喜地向你炫耀：'猜我得到了什么?猜我得到了什么?'

10 “你知道我对此是怎么解释的?这些人都渴望得到爱，但又得不到，于是就接受了这些替代品。他们乐于接受物质的东西，期望能得到类似于拥抱的感情回报，但这是行不通的。你无法用物质的东西去替代爱，善良、温柔或朋友间的亲情。