Summary
This review outlines how the endocrine system—particularly glucocorticoids and metabolic peptide hormones—acts as both an output and feedback mechanism for the circadian clock, maintaining rhythmic homeostasis. Disruptions from modern lifestyle factors like shift work or high-calorie diets can destabilize these clock-hormone interactions, with downstream metabolic and physiological consequences relevant to designing lighting and scheduling interventions for at-risk populations.
Key Findings
- Rhythmic hormones such as glucocorticoids serve dual roles as clock outputs and feedback signals that reinforce the robustness of circadian rhythmicity.
- Modern lifestyle disruptions—including shift work and high-calorie diets—alter circadian-endocrine set points, contributing to metabolic dysregulation.
- The review highlights a bidirectional communication loop between the circadian timing system and the endocrine system, particularly involving adrenal and metabolic hormones.
Categories
Sleep & Circadian Health: Reviews clock-hormone interactions and how circadian clocks regulate 24-h hormonal rhythms, with implications for circadian entrainment and homeostasis.
Shift Work & Staff Wellbeing: Examines how shift work disrupts circadian-endocrine balance, altering physiological and metabolic set points.
Author(s)
AH Tsang, M Astiz, M Friedrichs, H Oster
Publication Year
2016
Number of Citations
73
Related Publications
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Shift Work & Staff Wellbeing
- Off the clock: from circadian disruption to metabolic disease
- Working against the biological clock: a review for the Occupational Physician
- Shiftwork and light at night negatively impact molecular and endocrine timekeeping in the female reproductive axis in humans and rodents
- Circadian Rhythms Disrupted by Light at Night and Mistimed Food Intake Alter Hormonal Rhythms and Metabolism
- Alerting and circadian effects of short-wavelength vs. long-wavelength narrow-bandwidth light during a simulated night shift