Circadian Rhythms and Personality Disorders
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Circadian profiles of individuals with personality disorder and staff: A study in an institution
IRAS ID
136858
Contact name
Iona Alexander
Contact email
Research summary
There is evidence that individuals with personality disorder report a lower quality of sleep. Indeed, sleep and circadian disruption are recognised as common co-morbidities in many psychiatric disorders. In addition, sleep in hospitals is not optimal and patients and staff may have limited access to bright, especially natural light which is important for the circadian system.
Personality disorder is a common mental illness. It can be a very debilitating condition and causes problems in relationships, emotiveness, cognition and everyday life.
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioural changes that last about a day; they follow a 24 hour cycle. Circadian rhythms correspond to the light-dark cycle of an individual’s environment and are influenced by natural factors within the body, but also within the environment; the most obvious being the sleep/wake cycle. The most important signal providing time of day information to set the internal clock and sleep-wake cycle is the light-dark cycle.
The study will further our understanding of the relationship between mood disorder and sleep. As well as demonstrate the importance of circadian regulation for both patients and staff.
Staff and patients from Partnership in Care will volunteer for this study. Participants will fill out questionnaires relating to their mood and quality of sleep. They will wear an Actiwatch to measure their behavioural activity cycles over a 3 week period. In addition urine will be collected once a week for 48hours in order to generate a melatonin profile for each individual. Taken together, the results will generate a circadian profile for each participant. Throughout the study lighting levels and each individual’s exposure to both natural and artificial light will be recorded.
The funding of the project is provided by the sleep/chronobiology sub theme of the translational theme of the oxford bio-medical research centre. Participation is entirely voluntary.REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/0030
Date of REC Opinion
25 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion