Preventing dehydration during sleep.

摘要

Anyone who has ever experienced jet-lag knows that our bodies contain their own internal clock, which keeps us synchronized with the physical world and keeps our various physiological systems working together. How does this internal biological clock keep time? The core of the circadian timing system is based in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), where neurons exhibit circadian (daily) rhythms in their activity that are driven by cell-autonomous molecular feedback loops. These neural rhythms are critical for circadian output and are perhaps required for the generation of the molecular oscillations. But how do these SCN rhythms regulate other brain regions? This is a critical question, as a host of recent studies have turned up evidence that misalignment in the biological clock increases risk for cancer, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular dysfunction, mood disorders and cognitive decline.