Archive | Clocks in the Spotlight
Circadian Rhythms in Alzheimer’s Disease: Chicken or Egg?
To many people, one of the most dreaded consequences of living to an old age is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The older we get, the higher our risk of developing AD. Indeed, nearly half of all people that live past 85 years old have some degree of AD. AD is the most...
Night Owls Unite (My Life with Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, Part II)
Advocating For Policy Changes Night owls have organized and our ranks are growing. Groups like the Circadian Sleep Disorders Network and B-Society are advocating for people with late chronotypes - building awareness of flexible work and school schedules, reducing...
Failing in the Arctic night
…..or should that be ‘Arctic’? So here I am at 5pm failing to get work done in my Tromsø office (69N). It is dark outside and has been for what seems like forever. I last saw the Sun on 20th November, and now, on a good day, a blueish orange pinky glow over the hills...
Chronobiology on the COVID-19 frontlines
This is the first post in a new series titled "Meet a chronobiologist". These posts provide a brief look in to the work of prominent chronobiologists from their perspective. In this inaugural video blog, we asked Allison Brager about her journey to becoming a...
Why we should let the sun set on Daylight Saving Time
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recently published a position statement, aligned with the European Sleep Research Society, European Biological Rhythms Society, and Society for Research on Biological Rhythms’ position, calling for the abolishment of daylight...
Could circadian timing help improve crop protection?
Plant life underlies all of the agriculture that produces our food. Plants including crops have internal clocks that are important for their growth. This might seem surprising, but plants need light to power the photosynthesis that drives their growth, and there is...
My Life With Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, Part I
This is the first blog post in a new series on Patient Stories. These posts present first person accounts of those suffering from circadian rhythm-related disorders. As daylight fades, my brain and body start to wake up, and by the time it’s dark out, I’m feeling my...
A heart clock rhythm orchestra – a different tune at different times in the day
Have you ever had your blood pressure checked at the doctor’s? Did you assume your blood pressure stayed the same all day? It does not! It is in concert in a circadian rhythm orchestra with low base notes during the night and high peak notes during the day guided by a...
A link between clocks and cancer?
Many of us often choose to sacrifice sleep to either do extra work or enjoy night life activities. No matter which one it is, we usually feel that making up the lost sleep later will put our bodies right again. Well… although this may help relieve some sleep debt,...
Natural blues
Light is a key driver for synchronizing our internal, circadian rhythms to the external light and dark cycle. In my last blog post, you learned about how our eyes not only enable us to see the world (through the cones and the rods), but that they also signal whether...