Non 24 Blindness

It causes nighttime sleep problems and a wide range of daytime difficulties including an overwhelming urge to sleep during the day that can affect your ability to do everyday tasks or activities at work school or in social settings.

Non 24 blindness.

Non 24 is common in totally blind people due to the lack of light information received from the eyes which normally regulates the 24 hour day night cycle. Where some condition such as blindness or malfunctioning biochemical response to light in the subject prevent normal levels of light activated melatonin. It causes nighttime sleep problems and a wide range of daytime difficulties including an overwhelming urge to sleep during the day that may lead to decreased function at work and school as well as complications in one s social life. Non 24 is a serious chronic circadian rhythm disorder that s very common in people who are totally blind.

As a result in the totally blind the internal body clock reverts to a non 24 hour period causing fluctuating periods of good sleep followed by periods of poor sleep and excessive daytime. Currently there are 1 3 million people who are legally blind in the united states. Difficulty at night and challenges during the day. Isolation from daily light cycles such as working in an environment completely devoid of natural lighting.

Of the legally blind 130 000 have no light perception i e totally blind and as many as 70 suffer from non 24. Citation needed and 2 intrinsic. The possible causes of non 24 hour sleep wake disorder are 2 fold. Lack of light perception is a key factor in the onset of non 24 which can happen at any age regardless of the cause of blindness.

The master body clock runs longer than 24 hours a day and is reset every day by environmental light that enters the eyes and strikes photosensitive cells that signal the brain. Non 24 brings about two significant symptoms.