This latest volume in Advances in Genetics covers the genetics of Circadian rhythms. With an international group of authors this volume is the latest offering in this widely praised series.
Clinical practice related to sleep problems and sleep disorders has been expanding rapidly in the last few years, but scientific research is not keeping pace. Sleep apnea, insomnia, and restless legs syndrome are three examples of very common disorders for which we have little biological information. This new book cuts across a variety of medical disciplines such as neurology, pulmonology, pediatrics, internal medicine, psychiatry, psychology, otolaryngology, and nursing, as well as other medical practices with an interest in the management of sleep pathology. This area of research is not limited to very young and old patientsâ€"sleep disorders reach across all ages and ethnicities. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation presents a structured analysis that explores the following: Improving awareness among the general public and health care professionals. Increasing investment in interdisciplinary somnology and sleep medicine research training and mentoring activities. Validating and developing new and existing technologies for diagnosis and treatment. This book will be of interest to those looking to learn more about the enormous public health burden of sleep disorders and sleep deprivation and the strikingly limited capacity of the health care enterprise to identify and treat the majority of individuals suffering from sleep problems.
Popular science at its most exciting: the breaking new world of chronobiology - understanding the rhythm of life in humans and all plants and animals. The entire natural world is full of rhythms. The early bird catches the worm -and migrates to an internal calendar. Dormice hibernate away the winter. Plants open and close their flowers at the same hour each day. Bees search out nectar-rich flowers day after day. There are cicadas that can breed for only two weeks every 17 years. And in humans: why are people who work anti-social shifts more illness prone and die younger? What is jet-lag and can anything help? Why do teenagers refuse to get up in the morning, and are the rest of us really 'larks' or 'owls'? Why are most people born (and die) between 3am-5am? And should patients be given medicines (and operations) at set times of day, because the body reacts so differently in the morning, evening and at night? The answers lie in our biological clocks the mechanisms which give order to all living things. They impose a structure that enables us to change our behaviour in relation to the time of day, month or year. They are reset at sunrise and sunset each day to link astronomical time with an organism's internal time.
This book resolves to bridge the communication gap between research and clinical practice for circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders. Beginning with a scientific background on biological timekeeping, opening chapters describe the crucial nature of maintaining delicate temporal organization of physiological and molecular events within the body. Following this are discussions on circadian physiology and methods of circadian assessments. Subsequent chapters then relay comprehensive information regarding the International Classification of Sleep Disorders-defined circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders (CRSWDs), specifically discussing etiology and epidemiology, but focusing on evidence-based treatment data. Concluding discussions provide guidance for the application of light therapy and discuss future roles for optimized lighting environments. Nuanced and market-demanded, Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide for Clinicians and Investigators is an invaluable resource for Sleep Medicine clinicians, circadian researchers, and other interested parties.
An introduction to the mathematical, computational, and analytical techniques used for modeling biological rhythms, presenting tools from many disciplines and example applications. All areas of biology and medicine contain rhythms, and these behaviors are best understood through mathematical tools and techniques. This book offers a survey of mathematical, computational, and analytical techniques used for modeling biological rhythms, gathering these methods for the first time in one volume. Drawing on material from such disciplines as mathematical biology, nonlinear dynamics, physics, statistics, and engineering, it presents practical advice and techniques for studying biological rhythms, with a common language. The chapters proceed with increasing mathematical abstraction. Part I, on models, highlights the implicit assumptions and common pitfalls of modeling, and is accessible to readers with basic knowledge of differential equations and linear algebra. Part II, on behaviors, focuses on simpler models, describing common properties of biological rhythms that range from the firing properties of squid giant axon to human circadian rhythms. Part III, on mathematical techniques, guides readers who have specific models or goals in mind. Sections on “frontiers” present the latest research; “theory” sections present interesting mathematical results using more accessible approaches than can be found elsewhere. Each chapter offers exercises. Commented MATLAB code is provided to help readers get practical experience. The book, by an expert in the field, can be used as a textbook for undergraduate courses in mathematical biology or graduate courses in modeling biological rhythms and as a reference for researchers.
This title includes a number of Open Access chapters.Providing a nuanced study of the connections between sleep, circadian rhythms, and metabolis, this informative book examines how circadian actions affect the liver and adipose tissue, the brain, and metabolism. This important book introduces the reader to circadian rhythms in the body and the ext
The first comprehensive book on the subject, The Genetic Basis of Sleep and Sleep Disorders covers detailed reviews of the general principles of genetics and genetic techniques in the study of sleep and sleep disorders. The book contains sections on the genetics of circadian rhythms, of normal sleep and wake states and of sleep homeostasis. There are also sections discussing the role of genetics in the understanding of insomnias, hypersomnias including narcolepsy, parasomnias and sleep-related movement disorders. The final chapter highlights the use of gene therapy in sleep disorders. Written by genetic experts and sleep specialists from around the world, the book is up to date and geared specifically to the needs of both researchers and clinicians with an interest in sleep medicine. This book will be an invaluable resource for sleep specialists, neurologists, geneticists, psychiatrists and psychologists.
Circadian rhythms, the biological oscillations based around our 24-hour clock, have a profound effect on human physiology and healthy cellular function. Circadian Rhythms: Health and Disease is a wide-ranging foundational text that provides students and researchers with valuable information on the molecular and genetic underpinnings of circadian rhythms and looks at the impacts of disruption in our biological clocks in health and disease. Circadian Rhythms opens with chapters that lay the fundamental groundwork on circadian rhythm biology. Section II looks at the impact of circadian rhythms on major organ systems. Section III then turns its focus to the central nervous system. The book then closes with a look at the role of biological rhythms in aging and neurodegeneration. Written in an accessible and informative style, Circadian Rhythms: Health and Disease,will be an invaluable resource and entry point into this fascinating interdisciplinary field that brings together aspects of neuroscience, cell and molecular biology, and physiology.
With the invitation to edit this volume, I wanted to take the opportunity to assemble reviews on different aspects of circadian clocks and rhythms. Although most c- tributions in this volume focus on mammalian circadian clocks, the historical int- duction and comparative clocks section illustrate the importance of various other organisms in deciphering the mechanisms and principles of circadian biology. Circadian rhythms have been studied for centuries, but only recently, a mole- lar understanding of this process has emerged. This has taken research on circadian clocks from mystic phenomenology to a mechanistic level; chains of molecular events can describe phenomena with remarkable accuracy. Nevertheless, current models of the functioning of circadian clocks are still rudimentary. This is not due to the faultiness of discovered mechanisms, but due to the lack of undiscovered processes involved in contributing to circadian rhythmicity. We know for example, that the general circadian mechanism is not regulated equally in all tissues of m- mals. Hence, a lot still needs to be discovered to get a full understanding of cir- dian rhythms at the systems level. In this respect, technology has advanced at high speed in the last years and provided us with data illustrating the sheer complexity of regulation of physiological processes in organisms. To handle this information, computer aided integration of the results is of utmost importance in order to d- cover novel concepts that ultimately need to be tested experimentally.