Circadian Rhythm News and Research

Latest Circadian Rhythm News and Research

Stress affects circadian rhythm, increases metabolic disease risk

Stress is a normal part of life, but too much of everything isn’t healthy. Every day, people from all walks of life experience stress of various degrees. A new study found that when stress has disrupted the circadian rhythm, the body’s internal clock, it can increase the risk of developing metabolic diseases.

12 Nov 2019

Study shows how glucocorticoid hormones control sugar and fat levels over the course of 24 hours

For the first time, a study led by researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the German Center for Diabetes Research shows how glucocorticoid hormones, such as cortisol, control sugar and fat levels differently during day and night, feeding and fasting, rest and activity, over the course of 24 hours.

10 Nov 2019

Health impact of Daylight Saving Time

Every year people make a change in their daily timetables to make use of what is called “Daylight Saving Time” (DST), and then transition back again to their earlier time clocks. However, new research published in JAMA Neurology shows that this yearly change about may affect health over the long term. The researchers strongly call for stopping this practice, which has no economic benefit, and may have severe and chronic negative health impacts.

5 Nov 2019

Taking blood pressure pills at bedtime best for heart

Chronopharmacology or chronotherapy deals with the effects of a drug when taken at specific time of the day. This variable response to medication is due to the 24 hour biological clock or circadian rhythm of the body say experts.

23 Oct 2019

Prolonged exposure to blue light may affect longevity

Prolonged exposure to blue light, such as that which emanates from your phone, computer and household fixtures, could be affecting your longevity, even if it's not shining in your eyes.

17 Oct 2019

Genetic oscillator captures changes in gut microbiome growth patterns

For all the attention the human microbiome has been getting over the last few years, one aspect of such research rarely makes headlines: the difficulty of observing how it changes over time in response to various stimuli.

11 Oct 2019

Researchers identify an immune cell that helps keep time in the gut

As people go through their daily and nightly routines, their digestive tracts follow a routine, too: digesting food and absorbing nutrients during waking hours, and replenishing worn-out cells during sleep. Shift work and jet lag can knock sleep schedules and digestive rhythms out of whack.

4 Oct 2019

Duration and timing of sleep differ by age, geographical region and gender

In an exceptionally extensive worldwide study on sleep, nearly a quarter of a million nights of sleep were measured among sleepers ranging between 16 and 30 years of age.

27 Sep 2019

The biological clock modulates immune response efficiency, study shows

According to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the biological clock influences immune response efficacy. Indeed, CD8 T cells, which are essential to fight infections and cancers, function very differently according to the time of day.

24 Sep 2019

Human sleep rhythm is much older than previously believed, Javan slow loris study reveals

People typically sleep seven to eight hours in one stretch and stay awake for the rest of the day. Evolutionary scientists have assumed that this rhythm of sleep arose when our early ancestors went from being nocturnal to diurnal, but a new study of the Javan slow loris indicates that the human way of sleeping is much older.

18 Sep 2019

GABA neurons affect the circadian clock

Researchers from Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine and Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine have collaborated to uncover the role of GABA-ergic neurons or the inhibitory neurons in the functioning of the central circadian clock of the body.

9 Sep 2019

Melatonin promises to help reduce bone loss in space flight

New research suggests that the problem of bone loss caused by microgravity conditions in space flight may be successfully treated using the time-tested drug melatonin. Melatonin increases the level of calcitonin in bone, which suppresses the bone-destroying activity of osteoclastic cells and helps maintain bone density.

4 Sep 2019

DNA methylation closely linked to telomere length

Aging is associated with multiple disease conditions. Recently it has been found that many of these illnesses are linked to the length of the telomeres at the ends of every chromosome. Telomere length (TL) is affected by both genetic and epigenetic contributions.

2 Sep 2019

UGA study provides first evidence of biological clocks in individual cells

One of nature's most familiar phenomena is collective behavior- fish swimming in schools, locusts marching together, birds flocking.

21 Aug 2019

Rhythms in gene expression are highly disrupted in the brains of people with schizophrenia

Rhythms in gene expression in the brain are highly disrupted in people with schizophrenia, according to a new University of Pittsburgh-led study.

10 Aug 2019

Advanced sleep phase may affect at least 1 in 300 adults, study reveals

A quirk of the body clock that lures some people to sleep at 8 p.m., enabling them to greet the new day as early as 4 a.m., may be significantly more common than previously believed.

6 Aug 2019

Children who spend more time outdoors have less nearsightedness

At night Lisa Ostrin's lab at the University of Houston College of Optometry often looks like the setting of a disco slumber party, a place where a child, aged 7 to 14, accompanied by a guardian, sleeps over and is periodically exposed to blue or red lights.

6 Aug 2019