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Circadian disruption is pervasive and can occur at multiple organizational levels, contributing to poor health outcomes at individual and population levels. Evidence points to a bidirectional relationship, in that circadian disruption increases disease severity and many diseases can disrupt circadian rhythms. Importantly, circadian disruption can increase the risk for the expression and development of neurologic, psychiatric, cardiometabolic, and immune disorders. Thus, harnessing the rich findings from preclinical and translational research in circadian biology to enhance health via circadian-based approaches represents a unique opportunity for personalized/precision medicine and overall societal well-being. In this Review, we discuss the implications of circadian disruption for human health using a bench-to-bedside approach. Evidence from preclinical and translational science is applied to a clinical and population-based approach. Given the broad implications of circadian regulation for human health, this Review focuses its discussion on selected examples in neurologic, psychiatric, metabolic, cardiovascular, allergic, and immunologic disorders that highlight the interrelatedness between circadian disruption and human disease and the potential of circadian-based interventions, such as bright light therapy and exogenous melatonin, as well as chronotherapy to improve and/or modify disease outcomes., Circadian (circa, 'about,' and diem, 'day') rhythms are endogenous oscillations with an approximately 24-hour cycle. Circadian rhythms in physiology and behavior are organized by a central 'master' clock, the suprachiasmatic [...]

A study was conducted to establish the relationship between short sleep duration and the increased risk of coronary artery calcification. Results indicated that longer measured sleep did reduce the risk of calcification.

The association between sleep and adolescent growth and developmental stage is examined in a large sample of adolescents ages 12-16 years from a nationally representative longitudinal study. The results, which are based on a large sample size, guarantee further examination with more objective measures into the association between sleep and growth and development among adolescents.

OBJECTIVE. Studies of children have found an inverse association between sleep duration and overweight on the basis of parental report of sleep duration. Studies in adolescents have been inconsistent but used varied measures of sleep. We used a nationally representative sample of adolescents that included 2 different measures of sleep duration (24-hour time diaries and self-reported usual sleep hours) to examine whether the association with overweight is sensitive to how sleep is measured in a single study population. We expected that the 2 measures of sleep would be strongly correlated and that the time-diary sleep would be more strongly associated with overweight risk because it is likely the more accurate measure of sleep. METHODS. In 2001-2002, adolescents from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics completed 24-hour time diaries on a random weekday and weekend. Adolescents also self-reported average sleep duration. Both sleep measures were categorized into quartiles. Height and weight were measured, and a BMI z score for age and gender was calculated. Overweight was defined as above the 95th percentile. RESULTS. The final sample included 767 male and 779 female subjects who were aged 10 to 19 years. Mean time-diary sleep was nearly 9 hours on weekdays and >10 hours on weekends. Mean self-reported sleep duration was 8 hours. Time-diary sleep and self-reported sleep were weakly correlated. Time-diary sleep was not significantly associated with overweight. Self-reported sleep was associated with overweight, but the association was not linear. When both sleep measures were included in the same model, their effects on overweight were independent. CONCLUSIONS. The weak correlation between self-reported sleep and time-diary sleep and the independence of their associations with overweight raise questions about what different measures of sleep duration in adolescents represent. KEY WORDS. sleep duration, body weight, adolescents, overweight., URL: [...]