John Floyer, a British physician, wrote an 1898 treatise on asthma. This was the first major work to focus on the condition. Some of the information was not well-received. It was not all that good.
An asthma attack occurs when the air passageways of the lungs become blocked. This makes it difficult for the person to breathe, and can cause tightness in their chests, wheezing, and coughing. Floyers article also pointed out another important symptom. His asthma was more severe at night and woke him up as often as 1 or 2 in morning. Scientists were able to confirm his findings hundreds of years later: A 2005 study showed that almost 75 percent of asthma sufferers have worse night attacks. In the 1970s, a famous mortality survey in London showed that nighttime and early morning attacks were more deadly.
Steven Shea, the director of Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health and Science University, said that asthma can get worse at night. He says that most people sleep at night so it could be the lack of sleep that causes asthma to worsen at night. It could also be due to body position, mites, or allergens in your bedding. Shea suggests that it could be the internal body clock.
The circadian system is also known as the body clock. It regulates hormones, heartbeat and immune system in a 24-hour cycle. Although this system is internal it is heavily affected by external factors such as light and darkness, mealtimes and work schedules.
Frank Scheer, the director of the Medical Chronobiology Program of Brigham and Womens Hospital, said that it was difficult to separate the role of the circadian systems from people's behaviors and environmental risks historically. It is impossible to know exactly what causes changes in pulmonary function. However, Scheer and Shea have found a way to separate the circadian system of all external factors that could contribute to asthma.
The researchers first had 17 asthma patients, all with previous diagnoses, monitor their pulmonary function at their homes during the day. The participants used a handheld respirometer to measure how much air they could exhale in a single second. This measurement is called FEV1. The more the better. They also took notes of their symptoms and noted when they needed to use their rescue inhalers.
Things got even more complicated. Two different experiments were performed on the same group of participants while they stayed in darkened rooms at Brigham and Womens Hospital's Center for Critical Inquiry. Participants were allowed to stay in bed for 38 hours under the constant routine protocol. They were unable to get up to go to the bathroom or engage in strenuous activity. They ate the same snack every two hours: a small peanut butter jelly sandwich or tuna fish sandwich. They could listen to books on tape or chat with nurses. However, they were not allowed to move or get excited.
The subjects felt that external time didn't exist in these rooms, as they were not tied to their work or homes. Participants didn't know when the sun rose and set, when lunch might be, or when to fall asleep.
