VCE · Psychology · Sleep & Consciousnesslive from the app
Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders
A circadian rhythm sleep disorder is not insomnia and not a broken clock. The suprachiasmatic nucleus still runs a tidy 24-hour rhythm; the problem is where that rhythm sits against the schedule the world demands. In DSPS the whole cycle is set late, in ASPD it is set early, and in shift work the clock is set fine but the required sleep window has moved. Because bright light is the main cue that sets the clock, light timed to the biological morning pulls it earlier and light timed to the evening pushes it later.
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the one idea
why this one carries the topic.
Sleep isn't the brain switching off. It's the brain running a different program on a schedule — and breaking the schedule degrades everything else.
Two 24-hour rings: the outer ring is the external day with the required sleep window in amber; the inner ring is the body clock with its sleep window in purple. DSPS and ASPD turn the inner ring late or early, shift work moves the amber window instead, and a sun marker shows bright light turning the inner ring back toward the schedule.
what examiners catch — Students write that DSPS or ASPD is insomnia or that the rhythm is broken. The mark comes from stating that the rhythm is intact but misaligned with the schedule, naming the direction (delayed or advanced), and matching the light to it: morning light advances the clock for DSPS, evening light delays it for ASPD.
what you leave with
five things, not forty.
DSPS: sleep onset and waking both sit hours later than the schedule while the 24-hour rhythm stays intact; common in adolescence.
ASPD: sleep onset and waking both sit hours earlier, giving evening sleepiness and pre-dawn waking; more common in older adults.
Shift work: the clock is set to daylight but the required sleep window has moved, so the mismatch is external and rotating rosters stop re-entrainment.
Bright light therapy moves the clock: light in the biological morning advances it (treats DSPS), light in the evening delays it (treats ASPD and helps night-shift adaptation).
Light at the wrong time of day pushes the clock the wrong way, so the timing of exposure is the treatment, not the brightness alone.
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this conceptcircadian rhythm sleep disordersTwo 24-hour rings: the outer ring is the external day with the required sleep window in amber; the inner ring is the body clock with its sleep window in purple.
sits under itrem sleep and circadian rhythmsbecause disorders are the rhythm, broken
sits under itsleep deprivation and disordersbecause Separates a timing disorder from the sleep loss it causes.
built on itresetting the clockbecause resetting treats what you've diagnosed
the rest of sleep & consciousness
12 more, same treatment.
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consciousness as a continuumin the appnrem and remin the appsleep across the lifespanin the appsleep architecture and nrem stagesin the appsleep loss and blood alcoholin the appthe ultradian cyclein the appwhy we sleep: two theoriesin the appmeasuring sleepin the appsleep deprivation and disordersin the appstates of consciousnessin the appresetting the clockin the apprem sleep and circadian rhythmsin the app
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