Epigenetics has enriched human disease studies by adding new interpretations to disease features that cannot be explained by genetic and environmental factors. However, identifying causal mechanisms of epigenetic origin has been challenging. New opportunities have risen from recent findings in intra-individual and cyclical epigenetic variation, which includes circadian epigenetic oscillations. Cytosine modifications display deterministic temporal rhythms, which may drive ageing and complex disease. Temporality in the epigenome, or the ‘chrono’ dimension, may help the integration of epigenetic, environmental and genetic disease studies, and reconcile several disparities stemming from the arbitrarily delimited research fields. The ultimate goal of chrono-epigenetics is to predict disease risk, age of onset and disease dynamics from within individual-specific temporal dynamics of epigenomes.

表观遗传学通过对无法用遗传和环境因素解释的疾病特征添加新的解释，丰富了人类疾病研究。然而，确定表观遗传起源的因果机制一直具有挑战性。最近在个体内和周期性表观遗传变异（包括昼夜节律表观遗传振荡）方面的发现带来了新的机会。胞嘧啶修饰显示出确定性的时间节律，这可能会导致衰老和复杂疾病。表观基因组中的时间性，或“时间”维度，可能有助于表观遗传、环境和遗传疾病研究的整合，并调和因任意划分的研究领域而产生的一些差异。时间表观遗传学的最终目标是预测疾病风险，