Approved Research

Exploring Time Dimensions of Human Health and Wellbeing

Lay summary

Almost every aspect of human physiology and behaviour cycles every 24 hours (circadian) such as for example the sleep wake cycle and daily cycles in alertness or body temperature.  These cycles are controlled by a timing mechanisms that is hard wired into every human cell, they are not simply a response to the daily changes in the environment.  Disruption of the regularity of daily cycles by shiftwork or artificial light is associated with poor health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes and depression.  There are also similar cycles that recur every week, month and year, although their importance for human health are not as well understood as the daily cycles.  The aim of this project is to look for evidence of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycles in the physiological and behavioural data in UK Biobank, and to see if any of these patterns are related to health and wellbeing.  We will also look at whether disruption of the regularity of any of these patterns is more common in UK Biobank participants that have chronic diseases such as diabetes.  The project will take 12 months and the data generated will help us to understand the time dimensions of human health and disease.  It is important that we understand these natural rhythms that regulate human physiology because they might be disrupted by modern lifestyles

we know that disrupted timing is a feature of modern lifestyle (examples are shiftwork, irregular meals and activity, light at night) that could affect the natural rhythms that regulate health and well-being.