Circadian rhythms, sleep, and sleep disorders covers the topic in two sections focusing on basic science and clinical application. In the basic section, new developments and research findings focusing on basic circadian rhythm and sleep physiology in animals and humans is highlighted. The chapters are written in short mini-review formats in order to concisely describe the fundamentals, and current hot topics. The basic part starts with a chapter on the fundamentals and new discoveries on oscillating circuitries in the sleeping rodent and human brain. This sets the stage for chap 2, focusing on circadian and homeostatic aspects of human sleep regulation. Chap 3 extends these aspects to human cognition. The next chapter reports on visual and non-visual effects of light on human behavior, particularly endocrine and electrophysiological correlates. Chap 5 covers chronic sleep restriction effects on functional connectivity states. The last two chapters (6 and 7) give a broad overview on sleep modeling across physiological levels, with a focus on a quantitative model of sleep-wake dynamics based on the physiology of the brainstem ascending arousal system. The clinical section of the book describes the circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, from epidemiology to clinical picture and treatment. Disorders covered include delayed and advanced sleep phase syndrome, Irregular sleep-wake rhythm disorder, shift work disorder, restless legs syndrome, nocturnal eating syndrome, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea. Pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments of insomnia are explored, as well as the role of sleep-wake modulation in the pathogenesis and clinical profile of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Luigi Ferini-Strambi is head physician and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele and full professor of Neurology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, in Milan. He has been President of the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine and the World Association of Sleep Medicine, and Secretary of the International RBD Study Group. He has published more than 500 full papers in International Journals, and several book chapters on various neurological topics (Scopus H-index: 82; Google Scholar Citations Index: 100).
Professor Christian Cajochen leads the Centre for Chronobiology at the University of Basel. He obtained his PhD in Natural Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, followed by a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Professor Cajochen has served as President of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR) and currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Clocks and Sleep”.
His research primarily focuses on the effects of light on human cognition, circadian rhythms, and sleep, including circadian disturbances in psychiatric disorders and age-related changes in the regulation of sleep and neurobehavioral performance. Over the course of his distinguished career, he has received numerous honors and published more than 250 original research papers and reviews.
