This project involves the integration of three main disciplines: comparative chronobiology, psychology and endocrinology. More specifically, it explores the possible diversity in human chronobiology and cognitive parameters in healthy humans, as well as patients diagnosed with primary adrenal insufficiency, being extreme cases of naturally-occurring human variations caused by altered Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis signalling.

Data collection for this project was done in time periods that covered the transition from autumn to winter in 2022 and 2024, wherein chronotype, sleep parameters and psychology- based task performances of participants were monitored at specific times of the day (morning/evening) and the lunar month (new/full moon). A group of unobtrusive individuals of mixed age and sex, along patients diagnosed with autoimmune and congenital variants of adrenal insufficiency were recorded in the studies of 2022 and 2024 respectively. The psychology test battery used here included aspects of psychology that have not previously been looked into from a chronobiological perspective, such as aesthetic perception and implicit cognition. Notably, this project also explores the possible influence of lunar/monthly timing on humans, which is currently a highly debated topic in the field of chronobiology.

In addition to comparing chronobiological and cognitive parameters from daily and lunar timing perspectives between patients and controls, I also aim to perform comparisons between the two etiologies of adrenal insufficiency that we recorded. Individuals diagnosed with primary adrenal insufficiency are characterized by the failure of glucocorticoid synthesis and secretion by the adrenal glands and have to undergo glucocorticoid replacement therapy on a daily basis. The levels of the glucocorticoid hormones critically influence the entrainment of peripheral circadian clocks and likely other brain functions, and the current conventional hormonal replacement therapy does not replicate physiological pulses of the glucocorticoid class of hormones. Hence, study of the chronobiology of patients would be highly beneficial in understanding the impact of the two versions of the disease itself, and their medications, in day-to-day life. I also aim to check for variations in data across years for specific control participants who have repeated the experiment, and explore comparisons across age and sex. This would shed light on possible temporal changes in human chronobiology in healthy individuals as well.