RESPONSIVENESS OF THE AGING CIRCADIAN CLOCK TO LIGHT

描述（改编自研究者摘要）：研究者的 长期目标是了解基础和开发有效的治疗方法 老年人的慢性睡眠障碍。一种常见的睡眠障碍， 老年人是睡眠阶段的晚期，伴有睡眠维持性失眠 清晨醒来。这会缩短总睡眠时间， 白天疲劳和性能受损。睡眠的提前与 随着核心体温昼夜节律时间的进展 这表明生物钟的时间提前了。事业 这一进展是未知的。来自研究者实验室的初步日期 提示老年受试者在暴露于4000 μ g/ml的辐射后不会出现相位延迟。 lux在温度最低之前3小时，通常会延迟 年轻人的节奏。此应用程序的第一个目标是 了解与年龄相关的反应性变化的机制， 时钟亮了。第二个目标是评估是否有可能 补偿衰老昼夜节律反应性的年龄相关变化 通过增加光暴露的强度或通过 用钙通道拮抗剂尼莫地平进行药物治疗。的 拟议的实验将提供大量的数据， 了解年龄对昼夜节律和睡眠的影响， 改善老年人昼夜节律和睡眠障碍的治疗方法。

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.