Quora精選：爲何外國人喜歡早上洗澡？

Why do most Americans take a shower after they wake up in the morning?

爲什麼大多數美國人早上醒來之後要去洗個澡？

I'm Chinese. What I know is that nearly all Chinese people take showers at night. Why do Americans take a shower in the morning which drives them to wake up earlier? And I also want to know which countries take a shower in the morning like America, and which countries take a shower at night like China.

我是個中國人。據我所知，幾乎所有的中國人都是晚上的時候洗澡。爲什麼美國人大早上地洗澡呢？這能讓他們醒得早一點嗎？還有，我想知道哪個國家的人像美國人那樣早上洗澡，哪個國家又像中國人那樣在晚上洗澡。

I'm an American-born Chinese who has lived in China for a total of over 20 years, so this is a question that I get all the time. Among everyday habits and, the shower-in-the-morning vs. shower-in-the-evening is one of the real lines of demarcation between Chinese and westerners, and neither my Chinese-born parents (who never lost the evening shower habit even after 40 years in the US) nor my wife, who's from Beijing, ever get tired of asserting the supremacy of the PM shower. And I've never kicked the AM ablutions habit.

我是個在美國出生的中國人，我住在中國已經20年了，所以這是我一直以來都有的問題。在所有的生活習慣中，早上洗澡跟晚上洗澡成了中西方人的一個真正的分界線。還有我中國出生的父母（雖然呆在美國40多年了，但他們還是一直在晚上洗澡。）跟我來自北京的妻子，都從未改變晚上洗澡的習慣。而我從沒改掉在早上洗澡的習慣。

I shower in the morning because it really wakes me up, and provides me with this nice mindless routine during which I can think about my day. It also keeps my hair from looking strange. On warmer days where I've conspicuously sweated during the day I'll take a quick shower and not wash my hair in the evening, but I find that taking a shower right before bed makes it more difficult for me to fall asleep, possibly because I associate showering with wakefulness.

我早上洗澡是因爲真的能讓我清醒，可以讓我認真想想這一天當中毫無頭緒的日程。這也能讓我的頭髮看起來不一樣一點。天氣暖和一點的時候，白天顯然出汗多，晚上我就快速地衝個澡然後不洗頭，但是我發現睡前洗澡讓我更難入睡，可能是因爲我已經將“洗澡”和“清醒”聯繫到一塊去了。

I fully understand the Chinese preference for the evening shower. You're clean and comfy, bedding probably doesn't need to be washed as frequently and so forth. But I just need that morning shower to feel fully awake—kind of like that morning coffee!

我完全理解中國人晚上洗澡的喜好。你身上會很乾淨還很舒服，那樣你可能就不用頻繁地洗那些牀上用品等等。但是我需要早上的沐浴來讓我完全清醒——就像早上來杯咖啡一樣。