Circadian Rhythm Disorders: Causes, Symptoms, and Effects

If you are one of the people who has problems when it comes to "sleeping when it plays", perhaps you should know what the circadian cycle disorders.

It's been known for a long time the importance of sleeping well for our health. However, the moment in which we enter a dream state is not decided by us: it is a matter of the so-called Cardiac rhtyms, which are the oscillations in the biological functions of our body that regulate the intervals in which we sleep and in which we are awake. Alterations in these oscillations can lead to circadian rhythm disorders, which have a very negative impact on our quality of life, so it is worth knowing what mechanisms are behind they.

But first, we have to understand well the concept of homeostasis.

What is homeostasis?

The rhythm of sleep obeys a property called homeostasis, which is the way in which organisms try to maintain the biochemical balance between all their parts so that the whole works well. One way to easily understand what homeostasis consists of is to think about what happens when we run: at first, the body extracts the energy needed to keep the muscles working by "burning" the sugar that is available in the blood, but after a few minutes this begins to be scarce, so, in order not to fall into an imbalance, our body begins to use fat as fuel stored.

The same is true of the circadian rhythm, which also works based on a logic of balances of homeostasis. If we have slept a lot the night before, that day we will not be sleepy until after midnight, but if we have not slept at all we will want to go to sleep shortly after dinner.

What are circadian rhythm disorders?

Of course, the schedules that people dedicate to sleep are not created spontaneously regardless of the environment of the body; it is adapted in such a way that wakefulness tends to coincide with the hours when there is more light, and sleep occurs during the night. Therefore, the simple fact of keeping the eyes close to an artificial light source just steadily before going to sleep delays the onset of sleep.

As the time we dedicate to sleep is regulated in a homeostatic way, nothing happens if our schedules are occasionally affected by anomalies: During the following hours, this "lag" is regulated and returns to normal.. But if the jet lag in our sleep hours is maintained for a long time, then we are talking about a circadian rhythm disorder.

Symptoms of circadian rhythm disorders

Circadian rhythm disorders appear when there is a lag between when we are sleepy (or not sleepy). we have) and the periods of appearance of day and night, which also correspond to the agreed schedules socially.

In this way, a person with circadian rhythm disorders may sleep well, but they will sleep well when they are "off-playing". The consequences of this usually lead to lack of sleep in the wee hours of the morning and, at the same time, in the appearance of drowsiness during the day. The latter are the two basic symptoms of these disorders, and in turn shape the types of circadian cycle disorders.

On the one hand, there is the disorder in which the sleep schedule is advanced, arriving early the moment in which the desire to sleep appears and in which one wakes up. Another type of circadian cycle disorder is one in which sleep is delayed, so that you are unable to sleep until In the wee hours of the morning and lack of sleep is experienced if work or study hours force you to wake up in the morning. morning. A third type would be a chaotic mix of the previous two.

However, It must be taken into account that the diagnosis must be made by a specialist who offers personalized treatment.

Possible causes of these sleep disturbances

Among the possible causes that explain the appearance of circadian rhythm disorders there are basically two:

1. Biological factors

Is about structural or biochemical alterations in parts of the brain that intervene in the regulation of sleep, such as the hypothalamus.

2. Factors linked to interaction with the environment

These causes have to do with the environment and the people with whom the individual interacts. For example, starting to work night shifts in a warehouse can cause problems in this regard, or getting used to using a mobile phone in bed with the lights off.

Treatment of circadian rhythm disorders

The way to intervene in this spectrum of disorders is based on two actions: advance or delay the onset of sleep and advance or delay the time of awakening. For this, it is customary to use the oral administration of melatonin, a substance that the human body also produces to regulate the rhythm. circadian and whose presence at relatively high levels is linked to the onset of sleep, and exposure to light, which serves to delay the onset of the dream.

Both tools should be used in a sustained manner under professional supervision, and a single session is not enough, since the objective is to modify a habit that by definition is persistent.