Tagged Questions

2
votes
2answers
45 views

What mechanism suppresses melatonin release in humans?

I'm looking at melanopsin, a photo pigment in the human eye. One of its actions is to trigger suprachiasmatic nuclei SCN to suppress melatonin release. I'm interested in learning what is the exact ...
2
votes
1answer
35 views

Are (baseline) high blood levels of melatonin associated with either circadian rhythm or mood disorders?

(Exogenous) melatonin is administered at night for treatment of circadian rhythm disorders, but melatonin taken during the day is linked with depression. I would like to know if high blood levels of ...
3
votes
1answer
39 views

The fundamental importance of R.E.M. Sleep. (Rapid Eye Movement)

Question: I know that experiments have been conducted to determine the importance of R.E.M. sleep in our sleep cycle. It is particularly important for learning, information synthesis, and recovery ...
6
votes
1answer
37 views

Is there a normal human melatonin concentration to light level curve?

I'm looking for a graph or a curve that would show the typical concentration of melatonin in blood or saliva for humans over 24 hours. It would be good to know the photoperiod for the same human as ...
9
votes
1answer
102 views

What light intensity starts melatonin release in humans?

I'm interested in whether any studies have determined the intensity of light at eye level that starts melatonin release in humans. I know that: melatonin release is suppressed by blue light with ...
1
vote
0answers
30 views

Does Dorsal Raphe Nuclei firing pattern change in response to voluntary breathing?

I'm reading this paper, which discusses how Serotonin may be involved in motor functions of mammals: 5-HT and motor control: a hypothesis . The paper includes the following diagram of the Dorsal ...
9
votes
1answer
73 views

Does sleep in humans re-structure based on the expected sleep time?

I've read about anecdotal evidence that human brain has a fairly good internal clock that can be used to judge the amount of time that has passed. I'm wandering if there are any mechanisms in the ...
0
votes
0answers
25 views

Are there different metabolic pathways leading to “sleep”?

First of all, I apologize if this question does not belong on biology.stackexchange. I've long been interested in sleep and recently postulated this question in light of reading about ...
1
vote
0answers
19 views

Can we make any judgements about sleep or readiness to sleep from a heart rate metric and/or pulse oxymetry?

I'm looking at inexpensive and un-intrusive ways to quantify the state of human body/mind . One of these is Actigraphy, which is a study of human motion over time. This can be done with an iPhone ...
0
votes
0answers
91 views

Can the sleep/wake cycle be influenced by non-visible spectrum electro-magnetic radiation?

I've been reading a few papers on Melanopsin and Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN), and see that the sleep/wake transition is ...
3
votes
1answer
69 views

How are melatonin levels measured in humans?

I'm wondering how it is possible to measure diurnal variations of melatonin levels in humans. I keep reading that there should be a large difference in amplitude between melatonin levels measured at ...
3
votes
0answers
49 views

What controls the feeling of discomfort/comfort before and after sleep?

I'm interested in which biological systems or hormones are involved in the following phenomenon: Before sleep it may be difficult to find a comfortable position, and muscular aches and pains are more ...
1
vote
0answers
96 views

What is the timing of information assimilation within a human brain?

A little background: I'm an avid dreamer and have great dream recall, sometimes up to 5-7 per night. In my experience, I can sometimes trace some elements of the dream to an event that occured ...
4
votes
1answer
95 views

Can humans shorten their sleeping patterns?

Can sleeping patterns be trained, or are they genetic? I read that a human needs to sleep at least 4 hours. Can sleeping time be reduced without having a negative impact?
3
votes
1answer
164 views

Human sleep cycles and dream times, what influences the timing and intensity? Sleep history included

I'm doing sleep and dreams research and have developed an iPhone application to help me track my bedtime, rise time, sleep onset and also mark dreams. The app also monitors overall activity overnight ...
4
votes
1answer
225 views

Why do people look different after a long sleep?

What happens during a long sleep that makes people look odd when they have just woken up? Why doesn't the same phenomenon occur in the case of a person who lies down for an extended period of time, ...
12
votes
1answer
628 views

What causes REM atonia to be lost in sleepwalking?

I understand that in normal REM sleep the voluntary muscles are in effect paralysed in order to prevent an individual acting out their dreams. This paper indicates that there are likley to be ...
8
votes
1answer
950 views

Effects of Polyphasic vs Monophasic sleep in humans

Why do humans practice monophasic sleep cycles? When altering one's circadian rhythm to a Polyphasic sleep schedule, how much would that affect development? Is Monophasic sleep (once per day) ...