Dr. Terman, Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons
"Deep within our brain lies a biological clock that beats out a daily rhythm signaling us to get sleepy for the night and alert for the day. It also controls when our temperature rises and falls, when hormones should be circulated -- every body function follows a rhythm. The problem is that this inner clock has a life of its own, which can get disconnected from day and night outside. When that happens, internal night doesn’t begin at sunset and internal day can lie anywhere across the 24 hours of the solar cycle. The result is abnormal timing of sleep, often accompanied by depression. The physiological challenge is to synchronize our inner clock with the external world. That’s where light reception by the retina comes into play.
The retina connects to the clock in the brain by neurons that travel with the visual optic tract as it leaves the retina, but soon diverge toward the clock nucleus. When environmental light excites the retina at certain times of day, it shifts the clock earlier, and at other times of day it shifts the clock later. By this means, it guides the clock into synchrony with the outside world.
If you were born to be a late-night “owl”, and your clock tells to you not to get sleepy until 3 a.m. (for example), retinal light exposure at the end of your night (which might be 10 a.m.), will shift the clock earlier so you can sleep in sync with night outdoors. If you’re an extreme “lark”, however, you’ll need evening light to shift the clock later, so you don't fall asleep before night begins. These insights have given birth to light therapy as a new, non-drug clinical treatment.
If you have lost all retinal function and cannot process light signals to the clock, you are likely to fall into a trap: your inner clock takes over, and you start going to sleep later and later and later as the days pass. At some times of month, you’ll be in sync with day and night, but at other times of month, you’ll feel extreme pressure to sleep in the middle of the day. This kind of sleep problem is not easily recognized by patients or their doctors, but is essential for the right treatment – it does not respond to the usual sleeping pills, because it is not really a sleep disorder but a timing disorder."
"Deep within our brain lies a biological clock that beats out a daily rhythm signaling us to get sleepy for the night and alert for the day. It also controls when our temperature rises and falls, when hormones should be circulated -- every body function follows a rhythm. The problem is that this inner clock has a life of its own, which can get disconnected from day and night outside. When that happens, internal night doesn’t begin at sunset and internal day can lie anywhere across the 24 hours of the solar cycle. The result is abnormal timing of sleep, often accompanied by depression. The physiological challenge is to synchronize our inner clock with the external world. That’s where light reception by the retina comes into play.
The retina connects to the clock in the brain by neurons that travel with the visual optic tract as it leaves the retina, but soon diverge toward the clock nucleus. When environmental light excites the retina at certain times of day, it shifts the clock earlier, and at other times of day it shifts the clock later. By this means, it guides the clock into synchrony with the outside world.
If you were born to be a late-night “owl”, and your clock tells to you not to get sleepy until 3 a.m. (for example), retinal light exposure at the end of your night (which might be 10 a.m.), will shift the clock earlier so you can sleep in sync with night outdoors. If you’re an extreme “lark”, however, you’ll need evening light to shift the clock later, so you don't fall asleep before night begins. These insights have given birth to light therapy as a new, non-drug clinical treatment.
If you have lost all retinal function and cannot process light signals to the clock, you are likely to fall into a trap: your inner clock takes over, and you start going to sleep later and later and later as the days pass. At some times of month, you’ll be in sync with day and night, but at other times of month, you’ll feel extreme pressure to sleep in the middle of the day. This kind of sleep problem is not easily recognized by patients or their doctors, but is essential for the right treatment – it does not respond to the usual sleeping pills, because it is not really a sleep disorder but a timing disorder."
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