Non 24 Blindness Treatment

Select drug class all drug classes miscellaneous anxiolytics sedatives and hypnotics 2.

Non 24 blindness treatment.

Non 24 is a serious chronic circadian rhythm disorder that s very common in people who are totally blind. Melatonin is a possible treatment for both blind and sighted individuals with non 24. 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. Drugs used to treat non 24 hour sleep wake disorder the following list of medications are in some way related to or used in the treatment of this condition.

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. This is the first fda approved drug for any circadian rhythm sleep disorder since melatonin is unregulated. 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. There s no cure but treatments including hormones medicine and light therapy can help get you closer to a normal sleeping pattern.

The food and drug administration fda approved in january 2014 the melatonin agonist tasimelteon for the treatment of non 24 for blind people. Ask your doctor to put you in touch with others who also have. Melatonin has a nighttime peak both in species that are active during the day and species active at night. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland and is the biochemical signal of darkness.

Instead of sleeping at roughly the same time every day someone with n24 will typically find their sleep time gradually delaying by minutes to hours every day. Non 24 hour sleep wake disorder n24 is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder in which an individual s biological clock fails to synchronize to a 24 hour day. 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.