Prebiotics can help stabilize sleep/wake patterns following circadian rhythm disruptions.
Long-term circadian rhythm disruptions induce Alzheimer's disease-like pathology in rats, which can be reversed by administering fluoxetine. Additionally, elevated levels of amyloid beta and circadian rhythm disruptions can trigger each other, leading to the cascade of neurological symptoms of dementia.
People who are genetically predisposed to be "early birds" only take a few days to adjust to time changes as a result of daylight savings. Night owls can take over a week to adjust to the time change.
In mice, natural melatonin is linked to a pre-hibernation state, allowing for a slower metabolism and survival when food is scarce or the temperature is too cold.
People who ranked higher for conscientiousness and lower in openness tend to be morning people, a new study reports. Researchers say the link between personality traits and morning/evening chronotypes is partly due to genetic factors.
Disregarding lab animals' circadian rhythms can hamper reproducibility, validity, and reliability of research, researchers say.
A new, large-scale study reveals people whose sleep patterns go against their natural circadian rhythm are more likely to develop symptoms of depression and report a decrease in wellbeing.
Changing your sleep schedule by one hour has a significant impact on risk factors for major depression. Going to sleep and waking one hour earlier than usual was associated with a 23% decreased risk of developing depressive disorders.
People with myopia appear to have delayed circadian rhythms and lower production of melatonin in the brain compared to those without the visual problem.
New genetic findings related to circadian rhythm could have implications for humans, animals, and even plant life.
Light therapy which consists of exposure to both controlled natural light and artificial lighting may be a new tool in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Night-shifts destroy the natural 24-hour biological rhythm in the activity of certain cancer-related genes, resulting in more vulnerability to DNA damage and causing a mistiming in the DNA repair mechanisms in shift workers.
