Science Forum: Sex differences and sex bias in human circadian and sleep physiology research

  1. Manuel Spitschan  Is a corresponding author
  2. Nayantara Santhi  Is a corresponding author
  3. Amrita Ahluwalia
  4. Dorothee Fischer
  5. Lilian Hunt
  6. Natasha Karp
  7. Francis Lévi
  8. Ines Pineda-Torra
  9. Parisa Vidafar
  10. Rhiannon White
  1. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
  2. Northumbria University, United Kingdom
  3. Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
  4. German Aerospace Center, Germany
  5. Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
  6. AstraZeneca, United Kingdom
  7. University of Warwick, United Kingdom
  8. University College London, United Kingdom
  9. University of Michigan, United States

Abstract

Growing evidence shows that sex differences impact many facets of human biology. Here we review and discuss the impact of sex on human circadian and sleep physiology, and we uncover a data gap in the field investigating the non-visual effects of light in humans. A virtual workshop on the biomedical implications of sex differences in sleep and circadian physiology then led to the following imperatives for future research: (1) design research to be inclusive and accessible, (2) implement recruitment strategies that lead to a sex-balanced sample, (3) use data visualization to grasp the effect of sex, (4) implement statistical analyses that include sex as a factor and/or perform group analyses by sex, where possible, (5) make participant-level data open and available to facilitate future meta-analytic efforts.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data and source code files have been provided for Figure 1.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Manuel Spitschan

    University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    manuel.spitschan@tum.de
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8572-9268
  2. Nayantara Santhi

    Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    nayantara.santhi@northumbria.ac.uk
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4568-1447
  3. Amrita Ahluwalia

    William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    Amrita Ahluwalia, is serving as Editor-in-Chief for the British Journal of Pharmacology..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7626-6399
  4. Dorothee Fischer

    Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2122-3938
  5. Lilian Hunt

    Wellcome Trust, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    Lilian Hunt, is an employee of the Wellcome Trust. Her work is unrelated to the Wellcome Trust's Research Enrichment funding mechanisms that funded the workshop..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0319-7764
  6. Natasha Karp

    Data Sciences and Quantitative Biology, AstraZeneca, Hinxton, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8404-2907
  7. Francis Lévi

    Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Warwick, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1364-7463
  8. Ines Pineda-Torra

    Centre for Cardiometabolic and Vascular Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7349-2208
  9. Parisa Vidafar

    Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3990-1047
  10. Rhiannon White

    University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8175-3586

Funding

Wellcome Trust (204686/Z/16/A)

  • Manuel Spitschan

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (FI 2275/3-1)

  • Dorothee Fischer

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2022, Spitschan et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Manuel Spitschan
  2. Nayantara Santhi
  3. Amrita Ahluwalia
  4. Dorothee Fischer
  5. Lilian Hunt
  6. Natasha Karp
  7. Francis Lévi
  8. Ines Pineda-Torra
  9. Parisa Vidafar
  10. Rhiannon White
(2022)
Science Forum: Sex differences and sex bias in human circadian and sleep physiology research
eLife 11:e65419.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65419
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