Anxiety Forum

[shoe]

A study regarding serotonin seems to show that serotonin levels inside the body can decrease the body's sensitivity to light, and also that drops in darkness can lower the serotonin levels in the body. This seems to affect the 'circadian rhythm' of the body - the sleep/wake cycle.

It may show the role that sertonin levels play in such disorders as Seasonal Affective Disorder.

http://www.psycport.com/showArticle.cfm?xmlFile=comtex%5F2005%5F07%5F08%5Fup%5F0000%2D3418%2Dbc%2Dus%2Dseratonin%2Exml&provider=United%20Press%20International

The actual study is available for reading on http://www.neuron.org/ if you do a search.

The reason I consider this anxiety-related news is because serotonin is also linked to anxiety & depression, and many people taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) wind up being tired and/or sleeping a bit more than usual.

*on edit: according to another article, the hormone melatonin, which has already been linked to regulating the sleep/wake cycle is 'parented' by serotonin: (see 'Serotonin, cortisol and depression' section)
http://womentowomen.com/LIBantidepressants.asp