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It has been 50 years since Aaron Lerner isolated the indolamine melatonin, the pineal hormone normally secreted during the night. Among melatonin’s reputed actions is its promotion of sleep. Less well studied are the effects of sleep on melatonin. These authors report a post hoc analysis of 12 years of melatonin measurements from a total of 163 subjects undergoing variable schedules of sleep/wake periods and constant routine (a period of extended wakefulness in bed in a semirecumbent posture) in a facility designed to prevent subjects’ awareness of time.
The level of plasma melatonin during each secretory episode depended on the timing of the preceding sleep period. Mean levels were decreased by 22% if the onset of secretion was <8 hours aft…