What the Eye Tells the Brain
Light illuminates our surroundings and ensures that we can see fine details, recognize faces, discriminate ripe blackberries from those that need a little bit...
Chronobiology — From “Biorhythmology” to Mature Science
There was a time when, at the dawn of its formation, the future field of chronobiology was perceived as pseudoscience — "biorhythmology," akin to...
The Antarctic as a Chronobiologist’s Dream Lab: What we can learn from dark polar winters and bright polar summers
Polar regions are hostile environments for human beings. We are not equipped like the wildlife to survive the extreme temperatures and light conditions without...
Do Insects Sleep?
When your dog is tired, she looks for a suitable place to lie down, closes her eyes, and nods off. There is little doubt...
Melatonin and Its Uses
Google “melatonin” and the search engine will provide nearly 2 million references at the time of writing (August 2020). These vary from factual science...
Does Sleep Reflect Daytime Experience in Specific Parts of the Brain?
The dolphin sleeps with one half of its brain at a time, while the other half stays awake. This was shown by the Russian...
Life Across Latitudes
The first humans appeared in Africa in a region with latitude around 10 degrees, where there are approximately 12 hours of natural light and...
A Brief Guide to Chronic Insomnia Disorder
What is chronic insomnia disorder? The official Diagnostic Criteria for Chronic Insomnia Disorder provide an excellent “tick-off-list” to determine what symptoms are present, and if...
Circadian Misalignment: A Biological Basis for Mood Vulnerability in Shift Work
Depression has significant economic impact: According to the World Health Organization, the estimated cost to the global economy is US$1 trillion per year in...
Light Therapy Provides Major Improvement in Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease (PD) presents as problematic when developing effective treatments. In discovering that dopamine was deficient in post-mortem brains of PD patients, one would...
