This report proposes that fish use the spinal-rhombencephalic regions of their brain to support their activities while awake. Instead, the brainstem-diencephalic regions support the wakefulness in amphibians and reptiles. Lastly, mammals developed the telencephalic cortex to attain the highest degree of wakefulness, the cortical wakefulness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMammals evolved from small-sized reptiles that developed endothermic metabolism. This allowed filling the nocturnal niche. They traded-off visual acuity for sensitivity but became defenseless against the dangerous daylight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bright light therapy has been found to be an efficient method to improve the main parameters of circadian rhythms. However, institutionalized elders may suffer reduced exposure to diurnal light, which may impair their circadian rhythms, cognitive performance, and general health status.
Objectives: To analyze the effects of 5 days of morning exposure for 90 min to bright light therapy (BLT) applied to institutionalized elderly subjects with mild/moderate cognitive impairment.
The aim of this study was to compare the availability of diurnal and nocturnal light in two residences for aged persons (R1 and R2, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain). We found that the R1 inmates were exposed to lower amounts of light during waking time and higher amounts during sleeping time. The main traits of the circadian rhythms and the quality of sleep in the inmates of the two residences were found to be positively related to the availability of light during waking time and negatively to the increased light exposure during bed time.
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