A Baby’s Circadian Rhythm

             All humans have very similar circadian rhythms, and we can adjust it based on our everyday lives. Most everyone’s circadian rhythms are to wake up in the daytime and sleep at night. Some sleep later than others and some earlier. If you work at night your circadian rhythm is different as you sleep in the daytime and is awake at night. Adolescences and teenagers have similar circadian rhythms as they got to wake up early to go to school for 8 hours and then study and then back to bed to wake up early again. But what about babies? Babies are unpredictable as they can sleep all day and cry all night or vice versa on a good day. But one’s thing for sure is that babies need plenty of rest. But how do they know that they need it?

            The fruit fly or the Drosophila melanogaster is one species that is studied the most when it comes to circadian rhythms due to their many different behavior outputs. The molecular clocks in the brain and fat body of control flies gradually grow out of phase with one another under free-running conditions (Fulgham et al., 2021). This can be seen in humans as well as babies grow out of their unique molecular clocks and start to mold their new clocks into what society has created for humans growing up.

            Sleep and development go hand in hand when it comes to babies and them growing. In fruit flies, the period of feeding rhythms tracks with molecular oscillations in central brain clocks cells, consistent with a primary role of the brain clock in dictating the time of feeding behavior (Fulgham et al., 2021).  This is the same with babies in which they have responsive feeding, which means responding to a baby’s hunger cues, rather than feeding on a set schedule (Ruggeri, 2022). 

 

References

Fulgham, C. V., Dreyer, A. P., Nasseri, A., Miller, A. N., Love, J., Martin, M. M., Jabr, D. A.,     Saurabh, S., & Cavanaugh, D. J. (2021). Central and Peripheral Clock Control of         Circadian Feeding Rhythms. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 36(6), 548-566.             https://doi:10.1177/07487304211045835

Ruggeri, A. (2022, February 8). The Science of Healthy Baby Sleep. BBC Future. Retrieved        March 4, 2022, from 

            https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220131-the-science-of-safe-and-healthy-baby-sleep