If you don’t quite fit in among the morning people or night owls， well， you might soon have your own， more relatable， sleep category.

Recently， researchers propose two more so-called chronotypes： the “afternoon” person and the “napper”. A chronotype is defined by the time of day a person is most alert and sleepiest.

A group of researchers in Belgium created and distributed a short online survey to over 1，300 people， ages 12 to 90， asking them questions about their sleep habits and tiredness levels throughout the day. They then analyzed the results in collaboration with a group in Russia.

They found that indeed there were 631 people who fit into one of the two well-known night and morning categories. While larks are wide awake in the morning and sleepier as the day progresses， owls are just the opposite.

But they also found， based on the wakefulness-sleepiness answers， that there were 550 participants that fell into one of two other groups—the “nappers” and the “afternoon” people.

如果你既不是喜歡早起的人，也不是“夜貓子”，那么你可能很快就會(huì)有一個(gè)更適合自己的睡眠類別。

最近，研究人員提出了另外兩種睡眠時(shí)間類型：“午后派”和“午睡派”。睡眠時(shí)間類型是由一個(gè)人每天最清醒和最犯困的時(shí)間來定義的。

比利時(shí)的一組研究人員設(shè)計(jì)了一份簡短的在線調(diào)查，詢問參與者全天的睡眠習(xí)慣和疲勞情況，有1300多名12歲至90歲的人參與了該調(diào)查。之后，研究人員與俄羅斯的一個(gè)組織合作分析了調(diào)查結(jié)果。

他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，確實(shí)有631人屬于眾所周知的晚睡型或早起型?！鞍凫`鳥”在早晨非常清醒，然而隨著時(shí)間的推移會(huì)越來越困，而“貓頭鷹”則恰恰相反。

但是，他們還發(fā)現(xiàn)，根據(jù)這些參與者對(duì)于清醒和犯困時(shí)間的回答，有550人屬于另外兩個(gè)群體：“午睡派”和“午后派”。

Of all the chronotypes， the “afternoon” people wake up the sleepiest and then they become alert around 11 am， staying that way until about 5 pm， after which they get tired again. The “nappers” wake up alert and stay alert until about 11 am， after which they get really tired until about 3 pm. After 3 pm until about 10 pm， they are alert and productive again.

Still， the remaining 30% of participants didn’t fall into any group.

“Recognizing these categories is important because some people can benefit from an afternoon nap and， you know， the conditions for an afternoon nap are not very good in the modern society，” said lead author Arcady Putilov， a neurobiologist at the Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. “Maybe if the ‘nappers’， for example， took a quick 10—15 minutes’ snooze during the day， their performance would increase，” he said.

The authors also found that the results， for the most part， held true in men and women， in both day-and-night-shift workers and in all ages. There were some slight differences in age， such as older people tended to fall more into the “nappers” group.

在所有的睡眠時(shí)間類型中，“午后派”的人醒來時(shí)是最困的，上午11點(diǎn)左右他們會(huì)變得清醒，一直保持清醒狀態(tài)直到下午5點(diǎn)左右，之后他們會(huì)再次感到疲勞。“午睡派”的人醒來后直到上午11點(diǎn)左右都是清醒的，之后他們會(huì)變得非常疲憊，直到下午3點(diǎn)左右。下午3點(diǎn)過后，直至晚上10點(diǎn)左右，他們一直清醒且高效。

不過，剩下30%的參與者并不屬于任何一個(gè)群體。

研究報(bào)告的主要作者是來自莫斯科的俄羅斯科學(xué)院高級(jí)神經(jīng)活動(dòng)與神經(jīng)生理學(xué)研究所的神經(jīng)生物學(xué)家阿爾卡德·普季洛夫。他說：“識(shí)別這些睡眠時(shí)間類型之所以重要，是因?yàn)橐恍┤丝梢詮奈缢蝎@益，而且你知道，在現(xiàn)代社會(huì)，午睡的條件不太好。如果午睡派的人白天用10到15分鐘的時(shí)間打一個(gè)盹兒，他們的業(yè)績也許就會(huì)提高?！?/p>

研究者還發(fā)現(xiàn)，研究結(jié)果在很大程度上對(duì)男性和女性均適用，也適用于倒班的人以及各個(gè)年齡段。從年齡上看只有一些微小的差異，比如老年人往往更多屬于“午睡派”群體。

Word Bank

propose /pr?'p??z/ v. 提出

She proposed a possible solution to the mystery.

napper /'n?p?/ n. 打盹的人

If you’re a committed napper， you can skip all naps for a week.

collaboration /k?'l?b?'re??n/ n. 合作

The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.