Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Glandula pinealis
An organ the size of a grain of rice that sees nothing and yet knows whether it is day: it learns this through the retina and turns it into melatonin. What it needs most is not a nutrient but the difference between light and dark.
Also known as: epiphysis · pineal body · melatonin gland · internal clock · brain sand · pineal calcification
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
The pineal gland sits deep in the middle of the brain, weighs about a tenth of a gram and has one known task: to make melatonin and thereby tell the body whether it is night. It has no sense cells of its own. The path runs through the retina: certain cells there report not images but brightness, above all in the blue range. Their message goes to the internal clock in the hypothalamus, then takes a surprisingly long loop down through neck and chest and back up again — and only then reaches the pineal gland. As darkness falls melatonin rises, peaks around two to four in the morning and drops again towards morning. Light in the eye stops the release within minutes; that is why bright light late in the evening weighs far more than any sleeping aid. Melatonin itself is made from serotonin, and that from tryptophan, a building block of protein; the steps in between call for vitamin B6, iron, magnesium and methyl groups from folate, B12 and choline. None of this is peculiar to this gland — it shares it with the rest of the nervous system. From adolescence onwards grains of calcium are laid down in it, the so-called brain sand; it shows on skull images in most adults and counts as normal.
Ten to thirty minutes outdoors in the first hour after getting up. Even an overcast sky is many times brighter than any indoor lighting. This is the strongest lever there is — stronger than anything done in the evening.
In the last hour before sleep, warm, low, dimmed light instead of bright ceiling lamps. What counts is how much light reaches the eye — not which device sends it.
Closed eyelids do not keep light out. Curtains, taped-over standby lamps or a sleep mask cost nothing and work all night long.
The clock is set mainly by morning light. Two hours of lie-in on Saturday shift it like a flight west — and on Monday the return flight falls due.
As a sleeping pill it works weakly, as a timekeeper well — but only at the right hour and in a small dose. At the wrong time it shifts the clock the wrong way. Anyone considering it is better off discussing timing and amount with a professional.
Melatonin is made from serotonin, and that from tryptophan in dietary protein. Vitamin B6, iron and magnesium are needed for the steps between, folate, B12 and choline for the last. On a normal diet this is no bottleneck — it is worth attention only if a deficiency is documented.
After a night shift, travel home in dark glasses, sleep dark and quiet, get bright light before the shift. Forward-rotating rosters (early, late, night) are easier to bear than backward-rotating ones.
Decalcifying the pineal gland, opening it with certain remedies or crediting it with spiritual powers — none of this is supported. What is supported is less spectacular and more effective: light in the morning, darkness at night.
Melatonin from the chemist mimics what the pineal gland releases in the evening — it acts mainly as a timekeeper, not as a sleeping pill: half a milligram to one, one to two hours before the intended bedtime, shifts the internal clock; higher doses do not work better. It shortens the time to fall asleep by a few minutes on average. In jet lag and shifted rhythms, the time of taking it matters more than the amount.
Melatonin release begins about two hours before the usual bedtime and peaks between two and four in the morning. Light from about a hundred lux suppresses it measurably; a screen at short distance is above that. Release falls clearly with age — in people over seventy to about a quarter of an adolescent’s level. Calcifications of the pineal gland are found from adolescence in most people and mean nothing.
The picture of an internal clock shifted late: falling asleep long after midnight, getting up a torment. At the weekend, when sleeping in is allowed, the sleep itself is fine — that is what tells it apart from insomnia.
Worn out on the sofa, wide awake in bed. Spending the evening in bright light suppresses exactly the signal that turns tiredness into sleepiness.
The body shifts its clock by roughly an hour a day. Anyone changing every few days or crossing several time zones lives permanently against their own clock — with effects on digestion, sleep and mood.
When both the way to work and the way home are in the dark, the clock lacks the morning light that sets it. In some people this tips into a seasonal low.
With no light input at all the internal clock free-runs — on a day slightly longer than 24 hours. Sleep then drifts once around the clock over weeks. There is a specific treatment for this.
Grains of calcium appear from adolescence and increase over the years; on skull images they even serve as a landmark. On dissolving them, or on symptoms they might cause, there is no research.
Melatonin varies many-fold over the day. A single measurement without a time cannot be read; only evening series in saliva say anything, and those belong in specialist clinics.
Cortisol runs opposite to melatonin over the day. A daily profile shows whether the rhythm has shifted.
A lack causes exhaustion, problems concentrating, low mood and forgetfulness — and it is one of the few causes that can be found and put right with a single blood draw.
Low values are common with low mood. Whether correcting it lifts the mood is not settled; that it makes sense in winter at our latitudes is.
An empty store causes tiredness, lack of drive and problems concentrating long before any anaemia becomes visible. In women of childbearing age the most common single reason.
A building block of the cell coverings in the brain. The studies on mood are inconsistent; as part of a good diet it belongs there anyway.
Needed for making the messengers in the brain. It runs short with alcohol and under certain medicines — and it is always judged together with B12.
This is the substance the gland makes — and the reason it is known at all. As a supplement it acts above all on the inner clock, not as a sleeping draught: 0.5 to 2 mg, one to two hours before the wished-for falling asleep, shift the rhythm. Higher doses do not work better, they linger longer.
Calcifications of the pineal gland are common on X-rays from adolescence onwards and increase over the years — that is an ordinary finding, not damage. Whole product ranges for “decalcifying” have grown out of it, mostly with iodine, borax or chelating agents. That anything could be dissolved there has never been shown; that borax and chelating agents do harm of their own, on the other hand, has.
The gland has no will of its own — it follows the light that arrives via the retina. Bright light in the morning sets the clock forward, screen light late in the evening sets it back. That is the strongest known lever, and it costs nothing.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
Clearly effective with proven deficiency, useless without. Take only with a documented deficiency — excess is harmful.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
The only hormone it makes. Measuring it in blood is of no everyday use — the value only speaks when followed across a night.
The starting material: in darkness serotonin becomes melatonin. Both therefore hang on the same rhythm.
The pineal gland follows the light. Bright light in the morning and darkness in the evening act more strongly on the melatonin curve than any supplement — the most reliable lever.