YOGA as a Potential Mind-Body Medicine for Circadian Rhythm Restoration for Cancer Patients

Abstract

Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy suffer from a variety of side effects, including insomnia [1], However, the underling mechanisms behind insomnia during and/or after chemotherapy are not yet fully understood. Both cancer and anticancer therapeutics alter the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as sleep inducers TNF-α, IL-1 β and IL-6, to change the immune responses depending on immune cells repertories, which subsequence function on the central nervous system and the sleep– wake rhythms, by which to alter sleep behavior [2,3].