Age-Related Changes in Circadian Rhythms and Their Effects on Cognition and Psychological Well-Being: A Literature Review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction: Circadian rhythms, the internal “clocks” that control a variety of physiological processes, have been found to change considerably throughout one’s lifetime. Young adults tend to be more “evening” people, while older adults tend to be more “morning” people due to age-related changes in their sleep-wake cycles. This review aims to discuss the corresponding physiological and psychological changes that occur due to the changing circadian rhythms that come with age. Methods: A literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed, PsycINFO, and AgeLine. Keywords included variations of “circadian rhythms”, “aging”, “chronotype”, “cognition”, “depression”, “mood”, “bipolar disorder”, and “anxiety”. Studies were selected and findings regarding the physiological and psychological changes due to circadian rhythms and aging were reviewed. Results: Research shows that age-related disruptions in circadian rhythms are associated with cognitive and psychological decline. Diminished sleep quality is associated with older age, due to the aforementioned underlying dysregulated circadian rhythms. Sleep deprivation is associated with increased levels of fatigue, stress, and overall mood disturbances. Moreover, circadian rhythm abnormalities associated with old age are related to greater mood disturbances, depression, and anxiety. Discussion: Poor sleep and older age are important factors that can negatively affect one’s mood and emotional well-being. It is imperative that healthcare providers consider these factors when consulting and treating patients. Populations such as shift workers have been found to have impaired levels of alertness, mood, memory, and cognitive performance due to their dysregulated circadian rhythms. Furthermore, time of day plays a crucial role in the educational success of children and adolescents. Young individuals with an evening chronotype are put at a disadvantage for early school start times due to their opposing optimal times of performance. Conclusion: Circadian rhythm dysfunction that is commonly associated with aging has the potential to contribute to adverse outcomes in human health, including cognitive deficits and pathological conditions. Future research efforts should concentrate on further clarifying the relationship between changing circadian rhythms and its impact on psychological well-being.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.008 | 0.009 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".