%0 Journal Article
%T Entrainment of the circadian clock in humans: mechanism and implications for sleep disorders.
%A David Metcalfe
%J Impulse : an Undergraduate Journal for Neuroscience
%D 2007
%I Appalachian State University Honors College
%X Humans exhibit behaviour and physiology controlled by a circadian clock. The circadian period is genetically determined and administered by a series of interlocked autoregulatory feedback loops largely in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus. The phase of the clock is, however, synchronised by a number of external environmental cues such as light. A failure or change in any one of the requisite clock components may result in the onset of a long-term sleep disorder. This review discusses the mechanism regulating circadian physiology in humans and explores how disturbances of this mechanism may result in sleep pathologies.
%K Circadian rhythm
%K sleep disorders
%K sleep phase syndrome
%K dyssomnia
%K jet lag syndrome
%U http://impulse.appstate.edu/sites/impulse.appstate.edu/files/2007_5_10_metcalfe.pdf