Research Priorities for Mental Health and Circadian Science

One of the main objectives of the Circadian Mental Health Network is to set the research agenda for mental health and circadian science. To do this, we wanted to identify the research priorities that felt the most important to experts in this area, that includes individuals with lived experience of mental health difficulties and/or circadian disruptions, and those who support them.

To identify these priorities, we undertook a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP). This allowed us to collect uncertainties people had about mental health and circadian rhythms, bring those together into questions understandable to everyone, and identify which of those questions were the most important for research to answer.

The Top Priorities

Through our PSP we identified 25 priorities that should be a focus for future research. You can find all 25 priorities here.

The Circadian Mental Health Network is able to support and collaborate with researchers working to answer these priorities. For more information on the support and opportunities available, please get in touch.

The Top 10

Does the interaction between mental health and the body clock vary by age, especially during different life stages?
What strategies (including medications) are effective in treating disrupted body clocks co-occurring with mental health issues?
What is the relationship between the body clock and mental health in neurodivergent individuals and does body clock disruption worsen mental health in these individuals?
What is the relationship between a disrupted body clock and bipolar disorder, or between a disrupted body clock and psychosis? What are the mechanisms involved in this?
What societal and/or policy changes can help prevent mental health issues for, and reduce stigma towards, extreme chronotypes?
What is the relationship between (peri)menopause, mental health and body clocks?
How does mental trauma (e.g., grief) affect the body clock? How can this be managed?
Would it be better for a person’s mental health to follow their own (natural) rhythms or to follow more typical sleep patterns and/or social patterns?
What is the relationship between seasonal changes, body clocks, mental wellbeing and mental health issues?
Can mental health difficulties, such as anxiety or depression, cause disruption of the body clock at a molecular level, or are these driven mainly by behavioural factors?

How did we do this?

Working with the James Lind Alliance, and a Steering Group of people with diverse experiences - including lived experience of mental health difficulties and/or circadian disruption, carers, clinicians and clinical support workers - we launched two public surveys and held an in-person workshop to identify the Top 25 priorities for research in "Mental Health and the Body Clock".

You can read all about it in our blog, or you can watch Dr Amy Ferguson (our Network Development Manager) explain the whole process during our Circadian Mental Health Network Conference in June 2025.