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Sleep/circadian rhythm
I've been doing a low vitamin A diet for over a month, and I've been noticing my sleep patterns changing. I sometimes need only 4 hours of sleep. The reason I am not concerned is because I wake up feeling very refreshed. I've actually had to push my bedtime way after midnight, because otherwise I wake up at 3:00 AM.
The reason I am bring this up, is that some people claim that Vitamin A deficiency affects circadian rhythm. The study they refer back to is this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3504648/
"Thus, and similar to what we previously observed under LD conditions in this brain area as well as in liver [44, 46], VAD phase shifted BMAL1 and abolished PER1 circadian expression at both, mRNA and protein levels (Figures 7 and and88 and Tables 6 and and7).7). This certainly affects the endogenous clock activity in the hippocampus and, consequently, the temporal organization of some target functions, such as could be the daily performance of memory and learning. In fact, several studies suggest an association between cellular molecular clock disruptions and impaired cognitive function."
I find this interesting because over expression of PER1 is associated with apoptosis due to DNA damage. In VA deficiency, reduced expression of PER1 is associated with Tumor growth.
"We review the role of vitamin A and retinoic acid (RA) as mediators of rhythm in the brain. In the suprachiasmatic nucleus and hippocampus they control expression of circadian clock genes while in the cortex retinoic acid is required for delta oscillations of sleep."
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jnc.12620
Hi Dan,
Thanks for posting that information. For a while now I’ve suspected this to be a causal factor with the “sundowning” effect commonly reported in Alzheimer’s.
https://alzheimer.ca/en/Home/Living-with-dementia/Understanding-behaviour/Sundowning
There are some other interesting aspects to it. One is that the circadian clock proteins have a hollow core. In that aspect, they are somewhat similar to the RBP and casein proteins. So, I suspect that the circadian clock proteins are also potential carriers of retinol.
https://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/97
Also, very interestingly there has been a lot of research on the messed up circadian rhythm in the context of autism too.
Grant
Thanks Grant for introducing me to the term sundowning. For months, I've been trying to understand why I get more tired and anxious in afternoon and evening, no matter what time I woke up. I seem consistently scared of the darkness outside, no matter where I live, and despite having electric lights on inside. My grandmother did die from Alzheimer's.
I've also considered Bipolar Disorder Type 2 as a possible self-diagnosis, since like Bipolar patients my chaotically varying sleep duration (from 2-12 hours depending on the week) does roughly correlate with my mood of anxiety/obsession vs. depression. It appears to be related to a lot of different factors that come and go: tryptophan (which creates serotonin), melatonin (synthesized from serotonin), glycine, eating/fasting, morning sunlight, nasal mucus, mild breathing problems (but not apnea), mild chronic pain, lack of deep sleep, waking to urinate small amounts, hypervigilance/anxiety, twitching, gut issues, etc. etc.
I suspect that continued low-Vitamin-A diet will help my sleep, since once in 2017 and in 2018, my sleep issues mysteriously resolved for weeks until something changed, probably the diet or weather.