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Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by TheJourney
The pineal gland releases serotonin upon nightfall. en.wikipedia.org...
Personally, I don't think the gland holds any metaphysical properties like most around here do, but it is tied directly to night, day and it reacts to light which helps regulate circadian rhythms.
Perhaps serotonin, which regulates learning, mood, sleep etc. may be the cause.
ETA: I get the same way come nighttime. I am a night owl.edit on 25-10-2012 by LesMisanthrope because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by TheJourney
Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by TheJourney
The pineal gland releases serotonin upon nightfall. en.wikipedia.org...
Personally, I don't think the gland holds any metaphysical properties like most around here do, but it is tied directly to night, day and it reacts to light which helps regulate circadian rhythms.
Perhaps serotonin, which regulates learning, mood, sleep etc. may be the cause.
ETA: I get the same way come nighttime. I am a night owl.edit on 25-10-2012 by LesMisanthrope because: (no reason given)
Hmm that is interesting. I'm not one who sees a contradiction between 'metaphysics' and things like chemistry, neurology, etc. In fact, I find that learning these things in a scientific context is incredibly elucidating, explaining things with a very high level of specificity. The release of serotonin, which is a very important neurotransmitter in the neuro-sciences, and which is also very similar to el-es-dee(lol), at night is highly interesting to me. And it's released by the pineal gland? Even better! lol. I will want to look into, and ponder, this more, for sure.edit on 25-10-2012 by TheJourney because: (no reason given)
Wikipedia
Melatonin is N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine, a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan, which also has other functions in the central nervous system. The production of melatonin by the pineal gland is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light.[17] Photosensitive cells in the retina detect light and directly signal the SCN, entraining its rhythm to the 24-hour cycle in nature. Fibers project from the SCN to the paraventricular nuclei (PVN), which relay the circadian signals to the spinal cord and out via the sympathetic system to superior cervical ganglia (SCG), and from there into the pineal gland.
-Henry David Thoreau
I rejoice that there are owls.They represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all have. All day the sun has shown on the surface of some savage swamp, where the double spruce stands hung with usnea lichens, and small hawks circulate above, and the chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and the partridge and rabbit skulk beneath; and now a more dismal and fitting day dawns, and a different race of creatures awakes to express the meaning of Nature there.
-Henry David Thoreau
Going through the high field beyond the lone graveyard, I see the track of a boy’s sled before me, and his footsteps shining like silver between me and the moon. And now I come to where they have coasted in a hollow in this upland bean-field, and there are countless tracks of sleds, and I forget that the sun shone on them in their sport, as if I had reached the region of perpetual twilight, and their sport appears more significant and symbolical now, more earnest. For what a man does abroad by night requires and implies more deliberate energy than what he is encouraged to do in the sunshine. He is more spiritual, less animal or vegetable, in the former case.
The twilight seems out of proportion to the length of the day. The moon is accumulating yellow light and triumphing over the clouds, but still the west is suffused here and there with a slight red tinge, marking the path of the day. Though inexperienced ones might call it night, it is not yet. How sweet and encouraging it is to hear the sound of some artificial music from the midst of woods or from the top of a hill at night, borne on the breeze from some distant farmhouse, the human voice or a flute! That is a civilization one can endure, worth having.
Not much before 10 o'clock does the moonlight night begin. When man is asleep and day fairly forgotten, then is the beauty of moonlight seen over lonely pastures where cattle are silently feeding. Then let me walk in a diversified country, of hill and dale, with heavy woods one side, and scattered trees and bushes, enough to give me shadows. Returning, a mist is on the river. The river is taken into the womb of Nature again. How valuable was some water by moonlight! The water shines with an inward light like a heaven on earth. The silent depth and serenity and majesty of water! Strange that men should distinguish gold and diamonds, when these precious elements are so common. I saw a distant river by moonlight, making no noise, yet flowing, as by day, still to the sea, like melted silver reflecting the moon.
. The melatonin signal forms part of the system that regulates the sleep-wake cycle by chemically causing drowsiness
Originally posted by Captain Reynolds
reply to post by LesMisanthrope
You're quite right about the melatonin production. However, it was my understanding that increased melatonin production is correlated with drowsiness, which is quite the opposite of the state the original poster described.
. The melatonin signal forms part of the system that regulates the sleep-wake cycle by chemically causing drowsiness
en.wikipedia.org...