Abstract
Sleep is an essential component of overall human health but is so tightly regulated that when disrupted can cause or worsen certain ailments. An important part of this process is the presence of the well-known hormone, melatonin. This compound assists in the governing of sleep and circadian rhythms. Previous studies have postulated that dysregulation of melatonin rhythms is the driving force behind sleep and circadian disorders. A computer-aided search spanning the years of 2015–2020 using the search terms melatonin, circadian rhythm, disorder yielded 52 full text articles that were analyzed. We explored the mechanisms behind melatonin dysregulation and how it affects various disorders. Additionally, we examined associated therapeutic treatments including bright light therapy (BLT) and exogenous forms of melatonin. We found that over the past 5 years, melatonin has not been widely investigated in clinical studies thus there remains large gaps in its potential utilization as a therapy.
Highlights
Sleep is an essential component of overall good human health
Total BRIAN score correlated with wake after sleep onset, total activity count during sleep, and urinary 6-sulphatoxymelatonin
Melatonin supplementation is not known to cause a classical feedback phenomenon [65], meaning that administration of the supplement should not result in tolerance or pineal atrophy
Summary
Sleep is an essential component of overall good human health. It is a state of consciousness that occurs in a series of stages where the senses are largely ignored, motor function is mostly inhibited, and dreaming can occur [1]. Neurotransmitter, hormonal, and genetic factors regulate the propensity to sleep, notably adenosine, serotonin, and melatonin. Sleep is a necessary and useful physiological process in humans, controlled by circadian rhythms. These circadian rhythms are daily biological cycles that control a large portion of physiological processes [10] Both natural and artificial light heavily influences circadian rhythms by entraining “endogenous oscillators” that are composed of neural, hormonal, and genetic elements [11]. Clock genes encode transcription factors called clock proteins, “whose levels rise and fall in a regular cyclic or oscillating pattern” [13]. This leads to specific processes occurring at specific times
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