Sleep Disorders, Dysregulation of Circadian Rhythms, and Fatigue After Craniopharyngioma-A Narrative Review
Abstract
Introduction: Tumor- and/or treatment-associated hypothalamic damage results in reduced quality of life and increased morbidity due to sleep disorders in survivors of craniopharyngioma. Methods: The narrative review is based on a search of Web of Science, MEDLINE/PubMed, and Embase databases for the identification of publications. The search terms craniopharyngioma, sleep disorders, fatigue, and daytime sleepiness were used. Selected English language papers published 1970-2025 were included. Results: Circadian rhythms (wakefulness and sleep) are controlled by hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei and regulated by melatonin. A dysregulation of circadian rhythms due to altered melatonin secretion can be observed in craniopharyngioma with hypothalamic involvement. Furthermore, sleep quality is regulated by lateral hypothalamic areas, the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus, and monoaminergic nuclei which function as the arousal system. Flexible changes between sleep and wakefulness can be achieved through interaction of arousal and sleep-promoting systems named "flip-flop" switch. Insomnia can be the result of damage to the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus. Excessive daytime sleepiness and disrupted sleep patterns can be observed due to dysregulation of lateral hypothalamic areas. Obesity, chronic fatigue, headache, and excessive daytime sleepiness can be the result of poor sleep quality. "Primary" hypothalamic sleep dysfunction, including narcolepsy, dysregulated sleep-wake cycles, and…
Read the paper
Related studies
- The Matrisome: In Silico Definition and In Vivo Characterization by Proteomics of Normal and Tumor Extracellular Matrices
- The Escherichia coli MG1655 in silico metabolic genotype: Its definition, characteristics, and capabilities
- In silico pharmacology for drug discovery: methods for virtual ligand screening and profiling
- In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome
- In silico clinical trials: how computer simulation will transform the biomedical industry
- In silico optimization of a guava antimicrobial peptide enables combinatorial exploration for peptide design
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.