Summary
This review examines how circadian rhythms shift and become fragmented across the lifespan, with significant implications for designing lighting environments that support healthy entrainment in older adults. Understanding age-related changes in photoentrainment mechanisms can inform lighting strategies in elder care and healthcare settings to mitigate the health consequences of circadian disruption.
Key Findings
- Circadian rhythms become increasingly fragmented with age, and prolonged disruption of normal rhythms is described as highly detrimental to health.
- Sleep/wake patterns change markedly across the lifespan, suggesting that lighting interventions tailored to age-related circadian changes could improve health and longevity.
- The review synthesizes mechanisms underlying age-related circadian changes, pointing to the biological clock's dynamism as a potential therapeutic target.
Categories
Sleep & Circadian Health: Covers circadian rhythm entrainment, sleep/wake pattern changes across the lifespan, and fragmentation of rhythms with aging.
The Science of Light: Focuses on photoentrainment mechanisms of the circadian oscillator, relevant to understanding how light resets biological clocks.
Dementia & Elder Care: Reviews how circadian rhythms change with age and the health implications for aging populations, including opportunities to improve longevity.
Author(s)
S PANDA
Related Publications
Sleep & Circadian Health
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- The twoāprocess model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice
- Strange vision: ganglion cells as circadian photoreceptors
The Science of Light
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- Color appearance models
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice
Dementia & Elder Care
- Light therapy and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia: past, present, and future
- New strategies for neuroprotection in glaucoma, a disease that affects the central nervous system
- Sleep and circadian rhythms in Parkinson's disease and preclinical models
- Chronobioengineering indoor lighting to enhance facilities for ageing and Alzheimer's disorder
- The clock is ticking. Ageing of the circadian system: from physiology to cell cycle