Sleep is a sensitive indicator of well-being and a helpful early-warning symptom in many psychiatric disorders. Healthy sleep and a balanced sleep-wake rhythm are desirable goals of a salutary conduct of life. Preventive and psychoeducational measures should take up this point. Non-organic sleep disorders are commonly associated with psychiatric diseases such as major depressive disorder, hypom...

The course of 39 depressed in-patients' daily mood was recorded by means of frequent self-ratings during their entire stay (in total 3718 days). The frequency of diurnal variations largely varies between subjects without clear dichotomy in 'diurnal' and 'non-diurnal' subjects and the occurrence of diurnal variations is rather irregular. Mood variability measures rather than average daily mood i...

Most men live in a world dominated by a single periodicity, the alternation of light and darkness. This alternation adheres closely to a period of 24 hours, and all our life is geared to it. We wake and sleep, work and rest, eat and fast in a pattern which conforms to this alternation of light and darkness. The chief consequence of technological advance, is that now it is possible, by means of ...

Disputable questions of modern somnology, the neuroscience branch involving wakefulness-sleep cycle regulation, circadian and diurnal rhythms and other related problems, are regarded. Among them are the questions of the extent of similarity of the alternation of active-rest periods in the nematode, fruit fly, zebrafish and other simple model organisms to the waking-sleeping rhythm in warm-blood...

The pineal hormone Melatonin plays an important role in the regulation of the circadian sleep/wake cycle, mood, and perhaps immune functions, carcinogensis and reproduction. The human circadian rhythm of melatonin release from the pineal gland is tightly synchronized with the habitual hours of sleep. Peri- and postmenopausal women often complain of difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sle...

NEW DRUG APPROVALS Hetlioz for Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder The FDA has approved tasimelteon (Hetlioz, Vanda Pharmaceuticals) 20-mg capsules for the treatment of non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder. Tasimelteon is the first FDA-approved medication for this chronic, circadian rhythm disorder, which results from a misalignment of the endogenous master body clock to the 24-hour day that disrupts th...

BACKGROUND Chronotype characterizes individual differences in sleep/wake rhythm timing, which can also impact light exposure patterns. The present study investigated whether early and late chronotypes respond differently to controlled advancing and delaying light exposure patterns while on a fixed, advanced sleep/wake schedule. METHODS In a mixed design, 23 participants (11 late chronotypes a...

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently suffer from sleep disturbances. The authors investigated circadian rhythms, sleep, and well-being in women with BPD in their habitual life conditions during 3 weeks with morning light therapy (LT) and 3 weeks without LT (oLT). Sleep-wake cycles were measured using wrist actimetry, proximal skin temperature as an indirect index of...

Circadian organization of the mammalian transcriptome is achieved by rhythmic recruitment of key modifiers of chromatin structure and transcriptional and translational processes. These rhythmic processes, together with posttranslational modification, constitute circadian oscillators in the brain and peripheral tissues, which drive rhythms in physiology and behavior, including the sleep-wake cyc...