Disruption Of The Body's Circadian Clock

These cycles are based on the approximately twenty-four-hour tau of humans and external factors, called zeitgebers. The sleep cycle affects multiple parts of a person’s day, including school or work, naps, eating, or driving. Research has found that there is an endogenous clock but that animals are also affected by external cues through free-running experiments. An experiment was done concerning circadian rhythms and their connection through metabolism. The researchers looked at multiple factors affecting sleep as a homeostatic process along with a circadian process (Albrecht 27). These factors included neurotransmitters, protein kinases, and metabolism, along with others. The way the body affects our behavior is apparent when looking at the habit that is

The circadian rhythm is very important in analyzing ones sleep pattern like when they are a sleep pattern like when they are a sleep and when they are awake. One’s normal circadian clock is based on light-dark times over 24 hours.()

Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder, short for Non-24, is a chronic circadian rhythm disorder that affects people that are completely blind. The circadian rhythms control the body clock and regulate sleep-wake cycle and various other cycles that are critical in the body. In most people, this body clock runs marginally longer than 24 hours. This means that rather than cycle on a 24-hour day, most people’s natural rhythms actually run a bit longer. Whether the cycle runs two minutes or 30 minutes longer, patients with Non-24 have these minutes add up day after day, few days adding to a few more the next. Eventually causing evident changes in one’s body. Their body’s circadian rhythm becomes out of sync from regular day and night cycle.

Chronotype (CT) is part of the circadian routine and it is defined as an individual’s inclination in rise and sleep timing (Horne & Ostberg, 1977). Chronotypes comprise three different groups; morning, intermediate, and evening group (Adal et al, 2012). Specifically, the early group rise and sleep early, while individuals who belong to the evening group rise and sleep later than the morning group, whereas the intermediate group does not follow a specific pattern (Adal et al, 2012). Interestingly, around 40% of the individuals belong to one of the two poles, morning or evening group (Adal et al,

Delayed sleep phased syndrome (DSPS) is a disorder in which a person’s sleep is delayed by 2 or more hours greater than the socially acceptable or conventional bedtime. This article proves that this delay in falling asleep causes difficulty in waking up at the desired time. DSPS is a disorder that is linked to the Circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a day and night cycle that helps to compel humans to remain awake during the day and sleep during the night. The article contained helpful tips for ameliorating a teenager’s sleep cycle back to normal. This piece of advice included getting up at the same time in the morning, avoid the computer and reduce bright light exposure 2 hours before bed, develop a bed time routine repeating the same

As an example for sleep, the DEC2 gene can develop several mutations. One variation may result in reduced sleep while also reducing the recovery sleep needed, leaving a person with higher resistance to sleep loss. Another mutation can lower the gene’s ability to suppress the transactivation of genes such as CLOCK and NPAS2. Yet another variation has no observed effects on sleep or sleep deprivation.

The processes engaging in cognition including attention (consciousness, selective and steady attention) may be determined through analysis of active brain section, circadian rhythms and the effects of sleeplessness (Valdez et al, 2008). Developmental changes in the sleep processes, cirdcadian cycle, and inequality of circadian cycles in sleep disorders, circadian rhythms, lead to important consequences for cognitive performance. Generally, if awaking is happened at proper biological times, biological clock’s activity is useful for human’s cognition (attention). But when awakening is happened at improper biological time because of environmental circumstances (jet lag, early school start, long working time, working schedules) or because of disorders in circadian rhythms, then disharmony between circadian and physiological cycles of sleep lead to cognitive disorder (Wright, Lowry, & LeBourgeois, 2012).

In addition to mood, learning and memory become impaired when the circadian system shifts due to light stimuli, which can be seen in studies modeling jet lag where one is travelling around different time zones or in shift work situations where the sleep pattern gets effected. The symptoms include insomnia, indigestion, irritability and poor concentration. Sleep Disorders such as delayed sleep phase disorder and Advanced sleep phase disorder are also common when the circadian system is affected

There are many factors that contribute to the regulation of the circadian rhythm. For the purpose of this essay, focus will be placed on genetic regulation, the role of melatonin, and environmental regulation, with examples discussed in each.

One of the most important roles demonstrated within circadian rhythms is the master clock, located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). The suprachiasmatic nuclei consists of many neurons, serving functions that regulate the activity of the circadian clock. These neurons have the ability to express circadian oscillators, which generates the daily rhythms in behaviour and physiology (Antle and Silver 2005). These oscillators undergo phases, and to prevent mutations from occurring within the clock gene, these phases are pulled closer together so that the system remains rhythmic (Antle and Silver 2005), limiting the sleep

Circadian rhythmicity is a critical component in these animals physiological processes which provides them with a 24-hour temporal organization much like a clock (NIGMS, 2017). An animal's

The master circadian clock is found in the anterior hypothalamus’ suprachiasmatic nucleus. This region contains roughly 20,000 neurons arranged in clusters. These clusters demonstrate low electrical potential activity at night and high electrical potential activity during the day with a period of roughly 24 hours. This periodic activity level mirrors the human circadian rhythm’s tendency towards low arousal at night

the body’s sleep and wake cycle (Lieberman, et al, 1984). Research has shown that melatonin

All forms of life have their distinct predictable daily schedules known as the circadian rhythm. This endogenous twenty-four hour rhythm controls the metabolic, behavioral, and biological functions of an organism’s system. In mammals, the circadian clock is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which is a group of cells positioned on the anterior hypothalamus in the brain. A disruption in the circadian rhythms sleep/wake cycle disrupts the timing and pattern of sleep in mice and thus, alters the quality of sleep overall [1]. The quality of sleep has often been determined by the frequency of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep present in the sleep cycle, the more frequent meaning a higher quality of sleep.

Fatal Familial Insomnia, (FFI), is a neurodegenerative prion disease classified as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy, (TSE), meaning that it is genetically transmitted (Belay, 1999, p. 284). FFI is autosomal dominant (Xie et al., 2013, p81-90), meaning that an individual with A or AA alleles, a component of a gene pair, could carry this gene (Ireland, 2013). The capital, “A or AA”, denotes a dominant genetic trait (Ireland, 2013). The carrier will usually only present with one mutated gene and one normal gene in these cases which would be symbolized as, “Aa”, meaning the genotype is heterozygous, one dominant coded allele and one recessive (Ireland, 2013). Due to this 50-50 presentation of the gene itself, the likelihood of passing an autosomal dominant disorder or gene to offspring is also 50-50. The