The month of August, that hallowed time when Latin Europe grinds to a sunny halt, concludes with September’s good intentions to sustain the summer’s healthier habits.

神圣的8月，拉丁欧洲在明媚的阳光下进入假期，暂停很大一部分运转。到了9月，人们纷纷抱着保持夏天更健康习惯的美好愿望。

Rapidly we revert to form.

然而我们很快故态复萌。

Finnish researcher Jessica de Bloom’s analysis shows the feelings of renewal that people report after a seven-day holiday fade within one to four weeks of returning to work.

芬兰研究员杰西卡•迪布洛姆(Jessica de Bloom)的分析显示，人们在7天假期后报告的那种精神抖擞的感觉会在恢复工作的1至4周内消退。

A short break, concludes a Scientific American article, is like a cool shower on an oppressively muggy summer day — a refreshing yet fleeting escape.

《科学美国人》(Scientific American)一篇文章总结道，短暂的假期就像在潮湿闷热的夏日冲一个冷水澡——提神，但只能带来短暂的解脱。

On a continuum from the mini-sabbatical to the French month-long pause to the incredible shrinking US vacation, how much time is enough to not just recover physically but also to motivate a personal course correction?

从小长假和法国人长达一个月的假期，到美国人不可思议的越来越短的假期，休假多久才足以在恢复元气的同时，激发人生道路的调整？

In keeping with our smarter, faster, better culture, Ms de Bloom advises meting out our allotted rest and restoration into shorter, more frequent vacations.

按照我们的更聪明、更快、更好文化，迪布洛姆建议重新安排我们的假期，调整为更短、更频繁的假期。

But what if we need bigger chunks of downtime to recharge our batteries fully and gain adequate mental distance from our often toxic work environments? Unfortunately, there is scant research to enlighten us.

但如果我们需要更长的假期来充足电，并与往往有毒的工作环境拉开心理距离，那该怎么办？遗憾的是，目前缺少这方面的研究来启迪我们。

A 13-year study of four cohorts of investment bankers illustrates the long-term costs of ignoring our bodies’ need for respite.

一项对4组投资银行家进行的长达13年的研究表明，忽视人体对休息的需求会带来长期代价。

The bankers followed by Alexandra Michel, a Wharton business school professor, pushed the limits of their young bodies with impunity in their first three years as associates.

沃顿商学院(Wharton School)教授亚力山德拉•米歇尔(Alexandra Michel)跟踪调查的这些银行家，在刚进投行、担任副经理的头三年期间不要命地工作，把自己的年轻身体频频推到极限。

Around year four, they started to break down from overwork.

到了第4年左右，他们开始因过度工作而出现问题。

Eating disorders, tics, sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression were commonplace.

常见问题是饮食失调、抽搐、睡眠障碍、焦虑以及抑郁。

Most of them responded by pushing harder to maintain performance.

多数人的应对方式是加倍努力以保持绩效。

Eighty per cent strongly agreed with the statement: I am trying harder to control my body but with less success than before.

80%的人强烈同意这个说法：我更努力地尝试控制我的身体，但是不像以前那么成功。

Starting at year six, 40 per cent had breakdowns so severe they were forced to stop working.

从第6年开始，40%的人顶不住，他们的问题如此严重，以至于被迫停止工作。

Responses to the breakdowns fell into two camps.

这些银行家对身体故障的反应分为两种。

One group treated their bodies as antagonists, escalating efforts to exert control.

一组人把自己的身体当成对抗者，需要加大努力胜过它。

They talked about letting your body know who is in charge and submitted to extreme regimes such as lemon-juice only cleanses and boot-camp training.

他们会说让你的身体知道谁才是主人，并采取各种极端对策，如柠檬汁净化疗法和集训式训练。

A second group learnt to treat their bodies as insightful advisers, heeding even subtle signs such as low energy as cues: I learnt to differentiate between being tired and drained.

第二组人学着把自己的身体视为有洞察力的顾问，会留意到精神不振等细微迹象，将其视为线索：我学会了区分疲劳和筋疲力尽。

When I am drained, my body says that something isn’t right and I stop and try to figure it out, said one in this camp.

当我筋疲力尽时，我的身体会提醒我有什么地方不对劲，我会停下来试着找到原因，该组的一位银行家表示。

The longer intermissions their maladies imposed allowed them to step back for long enough to recognise and reject their companies’ unwritten rules.

疾病带来的较长的间歇期让他们后退一步，认识到——并拒绝——公司的潜规则。

Once your body forces you to stop certain behaviour, you ask why you engaged in them and whether there are alternatives, said one director.

一名总监称，一旦你的身体迫使你停止某种行为，你会问自己为何要那么拼命工作、有没有替代选择。

As Prof Michel followed her participants into new and different careers at middle age, from the ninth to the 13th year of the study, she also found that avoiding unsustainable work habits takes more than changing jobs or even occupations.

随着研究进入第9至13年，米歇尔教授跟随步入中年的参与者进入了全新的职业，她发现，难以为继的工作习惯不是跳槽或者改行就能克服的。

Many of them relapsed after moving into organisations that were supposedly less work intensive.

在进入工作强度理应较小的组织后，他们中的多数人旧病复发了。

Even among those who had learnt to treat their bodies as insightful advisers, a significant number experienced a second breakdown within the first year at their new jobs.

即使是那些已经学会把身体视为有洞察力顾问的人，也有相当一部分人在进入新工作后的第一年内经历第二次崩溃。

Not only had they chosen similarly demanding positions but, still weakened from their tenure at the banks, they also failed to take sufficient time in between roles to convalesce and gain psychological distance from their hard-driving selves.

他们不仅选择了类似的高要求职位，而且，在仍然因为在银行的工作而身体虚弱的时候，未能在角色转换期花足够时间修整，并从心理上远离要强的自我。

Needless to say, they also intensified the pace of work for everyone else, role-modelling behaviours they were then forced to sustain.

不用说，他们把别人的工作节奏也搞得紧张兮兮，而他们自己随后被迫维持榜样行为。

A spate of neurological studies show that downtime is not only crucial for replenishing the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, but also for sustaining the cognitive processes that make us human.

大量神经学研究表明，休假不仅对大脑恢复注意力和积极性至关重要，而且对维持使我们具有人性的认知过程不可或缺。

The time to think so many of us naively pine for allows us to consolidate memories, integrate what we have learnt, plan for the future, maintain our moral compass and construct a sense of self.

我们许多人出于本能渴望的思考时间使我们得以巩固记忆、整合我们所学的知识、规划未来、恪守我们的道德指南针，并构建自我意识。

The popularity of sabbaticals and adult gap-years is but one indication of our desire for respite.

长假和成年人间隙年受到追捧，是我们渴望喘息的一个迹象。

Yet, people cram them full of languages to learn and mountains to trek in a manic attempt to increase the yield on our decreasing amount of leisure time, while their organisations claw back time at the front and back end of a hard-negotiated, and often too-short, time period.

不过，人们给这样的假期塞满了需要学习的外语和需要翻越的高山，疯狂地试图充分利用日益缩短的休闲时光，而他们所在的组织在这个艰难谈判得到的、往往太短暂的休假期的前后分派更多任务，使实际假期更加短暂。

Still, for those of us who need it most, withdrawal from the fray is rarely voluntary.

话虽如此，对于那些最需要休假的人来说，退出职场打拼很少是自愿的。

More often than not our recalcitrant bodies drag us into repose.

在更多情况下，不再听话的身体会迫使我们休息。

Maybe it is time to give the way we work a rest.

或许是时候让我们的工作方式休息一下了。