RESPONSIVENESS OF THE AGING CIRCADIAN CLOCK TO LIGHT

描述(改编自调查员摘要)：调查员的 长期目标是了解和开发有效疗法的基础 治疗老年人的慢性睡眠障碍。一种常见的睡眠障碍 老年人为睡眠晚期，伴有睡眠维持性失眠 以及清晨醒来。这可以缩短总的睡眠时间，并导致 白天疲劳，表现不佳。睡眠水平的提高与 随着昼夜核心体温节律的时间安排的进展 这表明生物钟的时间提前了。的起因 这种进步是未知的。来自调查员实验室的初步数据 建议老年受试者在暴露于4000摄氏度后不会出现相位延迟 勒克斯在最低温度之前持续3小时，这一时间通常会延迟 年轻人的节奏。此应用程序的第一个目标是 了解年龄相关的反应性改变的潜在机制 时钟要点亮了。第二个目标是评估是否有可能 补偿衰老昼夜节律中与年龄相关的反应变化 通过增加光曝光的强度或通过 钙通道拮抗剂尼莫地平的药物治疗。这个 拟议中的实验将提供大量数据，以便更好地 了解年龄对昼夜节律和睡眠的影响，并导致 改善老年人的昼夜节律和睡眠障碍的治疗。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): The investigator's long-term goal is to understand the basis of and develop effective therapies for chronic sleep disturbances in older adults. One common sleep disorder in older adults is advanced sleep phase, accompanied by sleep maintenance insomnia and early morning awakenings. This can shorten the total sleep time and lead to daytime fatigue and impaired performance. The advance in sleep is associated with an advances in the timing of the circadian core body temperature rhythm which suggests an advance in the timing of the circadian clock. The cause of this advance is unknown. Preliminary date from the investigators laboratory suggests that elderly subjects do not phase delay following exposure to 4000 lux for 3 hours before the temperature minimum, a time that usually does delay the rhythm in younger adults. The first goal of this application is to understand the mechanism underlying the age-related change in responsiveness of the clock to light. The second goal is to assess whether it is possible to compensate for age-related change in the responsiveness of the aging circadian clock to light by either increasing the intensity of the light exposure or by pharmacological treatment with the calcium channel antagonist nimodipine. The proposed experiments will provide a vast amount of data in which to better understand the effect of age on circadian rhythms and sleep and lead to improved treatments for circadian rhythm and sleep disorders in older adults.