Free Republic

Researchers have found a genetic link between the nighttime production of the sleep hormone melatonin and ADHD symptom severity in children. The study enhances our understanding of the complexities associated with this prevalent neurodevelopmental condition. Sleep disturbances, including insomnia, restless sleep, and daytime drowsiness, are common in people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. It’s been hypothesized that people with the condition have a disrupted circadian rhythm. However, the exact mechanism connecting sleep problems and ADHD has remained elusive. A new study led by the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan may have provided the answer. The researchers...

Both cluster headache and migraine have strong links to the circadian system, the internal clock that regulates body processes, according to a meta-analysis. The meta-analysis included all available studies on cluster headache and migraine that included circadian features. The researchers also looked at studies on cluster headache and migraine and hormones related to the circadian system, including cortisol and melatonin. "The data suggest that both of these headache disorders are highly circadian at multiple levels, especially cluster headache," said Mark Joseph Burish, MD, Ph.D.l. "It raises the question of the genetics of triggers such as sleep changes that are known...

DESIGN: A prospective, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study was done. SETTING: General otorhinolaryngologic consultation for 2002-2004 in Seville, Spain. METHODS: One hundred twenty patients consulted for subjective tinnitus. They were included randomly in four groups of 30. RESULTS: Based on the subjective grading, tinnitus perception diminished by 56% in patients treated with sulpiride, by 40% in patients treated with melatonin, by 81% in patients treated with sulpiride plus melatonin, and by 22% in patients treated with placebo. Based on the visual analogue scale, tinnitus perception diminished from 7.7 to 6.3 in patients treated with sulpiride, to 6.5 in those treated with...

An international study has revealed that melatonin, known for its ability to regulate the sleep/wake cycle, can restore the composition of muscle fibers and protect skeletal muscle from damage caused by obesity and type 2 diabetes, known as "diabesity." The results show that this hormone improves mitochondrial function, reduces cellular stress and prevents programmed cell death, offering a new therapeutic strategy. The study showed the administration of melatonin to obese and diabetic rodents for 12 weeks succeeded in promoting the conversion of glycolytic (fast) muscle fibers to oxidative (slow) fibers, improving the energy efficiency of the muscle. This change not...

"Councilmember Carolyn King Arnold believes that a darkening of Big Tex's skin would make the State Fair of Texas feel more inclusive." Changes to Big Tex? (2 min video) This is Big Tex. Big Tex is too White. Big Tex needs melatonin to tan his skin.

SPRING, Texas (KHOU) - Parents of preschoolers in Texas say they are shocked after finding out their children were given sleep aids by their teachers. They said their children told them they were given “sleepy stickers” that would make them fall asleep. The patches in question are sleep aids containing melatonin, among other ingredients, and intended for adults. One of the children at the school, 4-year-old Layne Luviano, broke the case open in September when she snuck one of the stickers out of the classroom. “She kind of pulled up her little shorts and said, ‘Mom, look this is my...

A team of medical researchers has found further evidence that regular consumption of melatonin reduces an older person's chances of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that often leads to blindness. In their study, the group researched case histories of 200,000 older patients looking for an association between regular consumption of melatonin and the development of AMD. Prior research has shown that as they age, many people begin to experience degeneration of the macula, a central part of the retina. Currently, approximately 11 million people in the U.S. alone are experiencing vision loss due to AMD. Medical scientists have...

Workers at a New Hampshire daycare center allegedly spiked children's lunches with melatonin, Manchester police say. Owner of the establishment, Sally Dreckmann, 52, and her employees - Traci Innie, 51, Kaitlin Filardo, 23, and Jessica Foster, 23 - have been charged with ten counts of endangering the welfare of a child after turning themselves into authorities. Police determined the children's food was being sprinkled with melatonin without their parent's knowledge or consent, possibly to make them drowsy and easier to deal with. Too much melatonin can lead to vomiting, diarrhea and even seizures — especially in young children with low...

Unsupervised exposures of infants and young children to melatonin have increased substantially in recent years, landing thousands of children in the emergency room. The number of kids aged 5 and younger who went to an emergency room for unsupervised melatonin ingestion increased 420 percent from 2009 to 2020, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More recently, melatonin was implicated in approximately 11,000 emergency department visits among infants and young children between 2019–2022. Those ER visits highlight the continued need to educate parents and other caregivers about the importance of keeping all medications and...

The glymphatic system is the brain's self-cleaning mechanism. It wasn't discovered until 2012. The glymphatic system is tied to the circadian system and sleep architecture, and both are implicated in the pathophysiology of concussions. I'll explain the glymphatic system's nature, how its dysfunction contributes to concussion pathology, and the crucial role of circadian therapy in mitigating this impact. The glymphatic system was nicknamed "the garbage truck of the brain" by its discoverer. Its fundamental role is to remove waste products from the brain. Approximately 80–90% of glymphatic clearance occurs during "deep sleep." As sleep transitions from deep sleep into the...

An article shows that melatonin, despite its antioxidant effects and role in regulating sleep cycles, can worsen inflammation of the intestine and impair the action of gut microbiota. Melatonin is popularly known as the "sleep hormone" and is often taken as a so-called food supplement without a doctor's prescription by people with sleep problems. "It's generally thought to be harmless. However, our study shows that the ingestion of melatonin supplement can have adverse effects on health," said Cristina Ribeiro de Barros Cardoso. Melatonin can act as an antioxidant and improve several physiological or pathological conditions. "We started out in this...

Medical sleep treatment may reduce self-harm in young people with anxiety and depression, an observational study suggests. The risk of self-harm increased in the months preceding melatonin prescription and decreased thereafter, especially in girls. Melatonin is a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle and is the most commonly prescribed drug for sleep disturbances in children and adolescents in Sweden. Melatonin use has dramatically increased in recent years. The study identified over 25,500 children and teenagers between the ages of 6 and 18 who were prescribed melatonin in Sweden. Over 87 percent had at least one psychiatric disorder, mainly attention-deficit hyperactivity...

A new study shows that using a weighted blanket at bedtime increases melatonin in young adults. This hormone increases in response to darkness, and some evidence suggests that it promotes sleep. Previous research has shown that weighted blankets may ease insomnia in humans. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Hence, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden experimented with 26 young men and women to examine if the bedtime use of a weighted blanket increases the production of sleep-promoting and anti-stress hormones like melatonin and oxytocin. In addition, they investigated whether the bedtime use of a weighted blanket (12%...

In a small study of healthy adults aged 55 and older, 5 mg of melatonin increased total sleep time compared to a placebo. Researchers conducted the study in 24 healthy, older adults to evaluate whether a high-dose or a low-dose melatonin supplement could improve sleep. The team found that the higher dose had a significant impact, increasing total sleep time compared to placebo by more than 15 minutes for nighttime sleep and by half an hour for daytime sleep. The body naturally produces melatonin, which helps regulate a person's sleep-wake cycle with night and day. Melatonin levels peak at night....

The American Heart Association has issued its yearly reminder that incidents of heart disease and stroke go up at daylight saving time — a biological "clock shock" thus far unexplained. Changing the clock changes up our body's production of hormones, including melatonin, the night-time hormone that affects sleep; cortisol, the stress hormone; and serotonin, the "feel-good" hormone that helps keep depression and anxiety at bay. It's especially important over the next few days to try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even, as difficult as it is to hear, on weekends. Bhat says...

Asthma sufferers generally find their condition gets worse at night. Now, a research group may understand why. Melatonin, a sleep hormone that is sometimes prescribed to treat insomnia, exasperates the constriction of the bronchus—the pathway that moves air to and from the lungs. Patients with asthma often experience a worsening of asthmatic symptoms at night in so-called "nocturnal asthma." According to reports, more than 50 percent of asthma deaths occur at night, exposing a link between nocturnal asthma symptoms and asthma deaths. Although some have proposed several triggers that explain the pathogenesis of nocturnal asthma, the precise mechanisms regulating this...

Two key studies have identified the role that melatonin plays in reducing the risk of a positive test for COVID-19 and lowering the incidence of severe symptoms.That new finding adds to a list of benefits linked to melatonin since it was first discovered in 1958 by Dr. Aaron Lerner, a dermatologist who was able to isolate it from the pineal gland in a cow.Scientists began studying melatonin in the 1980s, and by the 1990s, it received more attention. Research data showed that melatonin influences a number of bodily processes, including calcium-dependent metabolism, immune modulation, and tumor growth—which it can restrain.Although...

Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by the brain to promote healthy sleep and regulate the body’s internal clock. It can also be taken in the form of a dietary supplement, and studies have shown melatonin to be effective in improving sleep and treating headaches, anxiety and other health conditions. Most recently, though, researchers have focused their attention on the effect melatonin might have on COVID-19 and the vaccines created to prevent it. According to a Cleveland Clinic study, melatonin may help prevent COVID-19 or aid in the treatment of COVID-19 due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Researchers found...

Abstract A recent retrospective study has provided evidence that COVID-19 infection may be notably less common in those using supplemental melatonin. It is suggested that this phenomenon may reflect the fact that, via induction of silent information regulator 1 (Sirt1), melatonin can upregulate K63 polyubiquitination of the mitochondrial antiviral-signalling protein, thereby boosting virally mediated induction of type 1 interferons. Moreover, Sirt1 may enhance the antiviral efficacy of type 1 interferons by preventing hyperacetylation of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), enabling its retention in the nucleus, where it promotes transcription of interferon-inducible genes. This nuclear retention of HMGB1 may also...

Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) in Japan show that melatonin and its metabolites promote the formation of long-term memories in mice and protect against cognitive decline. Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) showed that melatonin’s metabolite AMK can enhance the formation of long-term memories in mice. Memory of objects were tested after treatment with melatonin or two of its metabolites. Older mice that normally performed poorly on the memory task showed improvements as dosage increased. The metabolite AMK was found to be the most important as melatonin failed to improve memory if it was blocked...