Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Metabolism PDF

INTRODUCTION

Imagine what the world would be like without a sense of time. How would people know when to meet? How would one cook things or know when to dash out of the house to get to work at the start of the day? Just as our society is built upon times and dates, our organs and even cellular metabolism run by circadian clocks. When these clocks begin to deviate from normalcy, a variety of metabolic and sleep disorders can result.

The circadian rhythm fi eld is an active, multi-disciplicinary area of research encompassing both basic and translational studies. The goals of this text are:

1. To introduce the reader to circadian rhythms in the body and the external cues which set them.

2. Discuss on a molecular and organ-level how disrupting these clocks results in metabolic and sleep disorders. 3. Look at the clinical applications of circadian rhythms, with a focus on sleep.

To this end, the book is broken into three sections, each of which deals with a different aim.