Evaluation of environmental, social, and behavioral modulations of the circadian phase of dancers trained in shifts

Natalia Coirolo; Cecilia Casaravilla; Bettina Tassino; Ana Silva

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104676

Evaluation of environmental, social, and behavioral modulations of the circadian phase of dancers trained in shifts

iScience. 2022 Jun 25;25(7):104676. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104676. eCollection 2022 Jul 15.

Authors

Natalia Coirolo¹, Cecilia Casaravilla², Bettina Tassino^{1

3}, Ana Silva^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Grupo Cronobiología, Comisión Sectorial de Investigación Científica, Universidad de la República, Jackson 13 01, 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay.
² Laboratorio de Inmunología, Instituto de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay.
³ Sección Etología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay.
⁴ Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay.

Abstract

The interplay of environmental, social, and behavioral factors influencing human circadian phase in ecological conditions remains elusive. The Uruguayan national dance school END-SODRE operating in two shifts (morning: 8:30-12:30 and night: 20:00-24:00) allowed us to evaluate how social demands, chronotype, environmental light, physical activity, and sleep patterns affected individual circadian phase measured by the onset of the nocturnal increase of melatonin (DLMO) in a single study. The DLMO was 1.5 h earlier in morning-shift dancers (n = 7) compared to night-shift dancers (n = 11). Sleep time and chronotype (only in night-shift dancers) were associated with the circadian phase. In training days, during each participant's phase-advance and phase-delay time windows, light exposure was similar between morning and night-shift dancers and did not correlate with DLMO. In contrast, the time spent in moderate-vigorous physical activity during each participant's phase-lag time window was higher in night-shift dancers than in morning-shift dancers and positively correlated with DLMO.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Chronobiology; Neuroscience; Physiology.