School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA 16509, USA.
COVID/Communicable Disease, Cabarrus Health Alliance, Kannapolis, NC 28081, USA.
Nutrients. 2021 Sep 30;13(10):3480. doi: 10.3390/nu13103480.
Sleep is an essential component of overall human health but is so tightly regulated that when disrupted can cause or worsen certain ailments. An important part of this process is the presence of the well-known hormone, melatonin. This compound assists in the governing of sleep and circadian rhythms. Previous studies have postulated that dysregulation of melatonin rhythms is the driving force behind sleep and circadian disorders. A computer-aided search spanning the years of 2015-2020 using the search terms melatonin, circadian rhythm, disorder yielded 52 full text articles that were analyzed. We explored the mechanisms behind melatonin dysregulation and how it affects various disorders. Additionally, we examined associated therapeutic treatments including bright light therapy (BLT) and exogenous forms of melatonin. We found that over the past 5 years, melatonin has not been widely investigated in clinical studies thus there remains large gaps in its potential utilization as a therapy.
睡眠是整体人类健康的重要组成部分，但它受到了严格的调节，一旦受到干扰，就会导致或加重某些疾病。这个过程的一个重要部分是存在众所周知的激素——褪黑素。这种化合物有助于调节睡眠和昼夜节律。先前的研究假设，褪黑素节律的失调是睡眠和昼夜节律紊乱的驱动力。使用“褪黑素、昼夜节律、紊乱”等关键词，对 2015 年至 2020 年期间的文献进行了计算机辅助检索，共获得了 52 篇全文文章进行分析。我们探讨了褪黑素失调的背后机制以及它如何影响各种疾病。此外，我们还研究了相关的治疗方法，包括亮光疗法（BLT）和外源性褪黑素。我们发现，在过去的 5 年中，褪黑素在临床研究中并没有被广泛研究，因此它作为一种治疗方法的潜力仍存在很大的空白。
