Search

Sleep is undoubtedly important for human health as insufficient sleep has been associated with a plethora of diseases. Adequate sleep assessment is critical in clinical and research settings, however current sleep assessment protocols fail to account for circadian rhythms, despite the fact that sleep is a well-recognized circadian process. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if circadian parameters, such as chronotype, influence sleep quality in a sleep laboratory setting. Methods: In order to investigate this, twenty participants (10 men and 10 women) aged 18-31 years old had their sleep recorded by electroencephalography in a sleep lab. Participants also complete surveys which provided data on chronotype, social jet lag and subjective sleep quality. Participants were allowed to self-select sleep time for the study, and sleep discrepancy, defined as the difference between reported and experienced mid-sleep, was determined. Results: Interestingly, results indicated a significant correlation between self-reported sleep quality and social jet lag, with those who typically experience more social jet lag being more satisfied with their sleep during the study (r = 0.549, p = 0.012). In addition, when participants were separated into groups based on chronotype, sleep discrepancy and social jet lag, sizeable differences were noted for parameters such as sleep onset latency, number of awakenings, and percent of time spent in REM sleep. Conclusion: These results suggest circadian parameters serve as predictors of both subjective and objective sleep quality, and thus illuminates a necessity for these parameters to be taken into account in the assessment and research of sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circadian rhythms are the approximate 24-h biological cycles that function to prepare an organism for daily environmental changes. They are driven by the molecular clock, a transcriptional:translational feedback mechanism that in mammals involves the core clock genes Bmal1, Clock, Per1/2, and Cry1/2. The molecular clock is present in virtually all cells of an organism. The central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) has been well studied, but the clocks in the peripheral tissues, such as heart and skeletal muscle, have just begun to be investigated. Skeletal muscle is one of the largest organs in the body, comprising approximately 45% of total body mass. More than 2300 genes in skeletal muscle are expressed in a circadian pattern, and these genes participate in a wide range of functions, including myogenesis, transcription, and metabolism. The circadian rhythms of skeletal muscle can be entrained both indirectly through light input to the SCN and directly through time of feeding and activity. It is critical for the skeletal muscle molecular clock not only to be entrained to the environment but also to be in synchrony with rhythms of other tissues. When circadian rhythms are disrupted, the observed effects on skeletal muscle include fiber-type shifts, altered sarcomeric structure, reduced mitochondrial respiration, and impaired muscle function. Furthermore, there are detrimental effects on metabolic health, including impaired glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, which skeletal muscle likely contributes to considering it is a key metabolic tissue. These data indicate a critical role for skeletal muscle circadian rhythms for both muscle and systems health. Future research is needed to determine the mechanisms of molecular clock function in skeletal muscle, identify the means by which skeletal muscle entrainment occurs, and provide a stringent comparison of circadian gene expression across the diverse tissue system of skeletal muscle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]