Research Perspective|Volume 3, Issue 8|pp 813—817

Aging and Circadian Disruption: Causes and Effects

Steven A. Brown¹, Karen Schmitt², Anne Eckert²

¹Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
²Neurobiology Laboratory for Brain Aging and Mental Health, Psychiatric University Clinics Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Received: July 9, 2011Accepted: July 27, 2011Published: August 22, 2011

Copyright: © 2011 Brown et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The relationship between aging and daily “circadian” behavior in humans is bidirectional: on the one hand, dysfunction of circadian clocks promotes age-related maladies; on the other, aging per se leads to changes and disruption in circadian behavior and physiology. For the latter case, recent research suggests that changes to both homeostatic and circadian sleep regulatory mechanisms may play a role. Could hormonal changes be in part responsible?