ArticleSleep2023
The dim light melatonin onset across ages, methodologies, and sex and its relationship with morningness/eveningness.
Article in Sleep, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Multi ancestry genome wide association meta analysis of urinary aMT6s levels.Scientific reports · 2026Pooled it
- Circadian realignment and depressed mood: A systematic review.Sleep medicine reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Associations between systemic melatonin and human myopia: A systematic review.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2023Pooled it
- A one-hour delayed school start improves sleep, sleepiness and inhibitory control in early adolescents in a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Association between dim light melatonin onset predicted from gene expression profiles with sleep time and chronotype preference: A pilot study.Chronobiology international · 2025Trial
- Multivariate associations between sleep patterns and self-regulation in adolescence: Canonical correlation analysis across ABCD and NCANDA cohorts.Chronobiology international · 2026Article
- Developing multicomponent chronotherapeutic interventions for emerging adults with delayed sleep timing.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of radiotherapy timing on survival and radiotoxicity outcomes in localized prostate cancer: a retrospective cohort study.La Radiologia medica · 2026Article
- Time vortex: the circadian-dopaminergic dialogue in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2026Review
- Age-related differences in circadian timing system and sleep quality in young and older lifelong endurance runners.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Design considerations for hypertension chronotherapy trials: insights from experience and modelling.BMC medicine · 2026Review
- Association of physical activity and rest-activity rhythm with sustained attention and melatonin among community-dwelling older adults.European review of aging and physical activity : official journal of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity · 2026Article
- Reward Sensitivity's Associations with Morningness-Eveningness and Other Circadian-Coupled Behavioral Phenomena: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-Sectional and Prospective Relationships.Clinical psychology : a publication of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Field assessment of melatonin timing reveals circadian misalignment beyond chronotype in elite female football players.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Article
- HairTime: A noninvasive assay for estimating circadian phase from a single hair sample.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Late evening room light and sleep restriction reduces the ability of bright morning light to phase advance adolescents' circadian clocks.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A Novel Chronotype-Based Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: An Updated Representation by the Italian Society of Endocrinology (SIE) and the Italian Society of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition (ADI).Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Research priorities to improve classification of sleep-wake disorders.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The onset of melatonin secretion, the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO), is a tool for determining the phase of the circadian timing system. Although small studies have investigated the impacts of age and methods of calculating DLMO, there is no DLMO reference range. In the current study, the saliva DLMO from 3579 participants from 121 published studies and plasma DLMO from 818 healthy controls from 31 studies (aged 3-73 years) were analyzed. In a subset of 53 papers (1749 participants), individual saliva DLMO and Morningness Eveningness Questionaire (MEQ) scores were obtained from authors or mined from publications and a reference range was constructed. Saliva DLMO was earliest in children to 10 years of age and latest around 20 years of age and thereafter advanced with age by 30 min in the oldest participants. Melatonin assay methods and DLMO calculation methods had little effect on the determination of the DLMO. Saliva DLMO was correlated (p < 0.001) with the MEQ score; lower MEQ scores were associated with later DLMO. MEQ scores increased with age, reflecting a tendency toward morningness. An evaluation of 14 saliva DLMO studies of clinically diagnosed patients living with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (mean ages 20 to 31 years) revealed mean saliva DLMO within the reference range albeit at the late extreme. Peak plasma melatonin levels from 179 studies of healthy participants revealed a high degree of variability within studies and age groups, but only a small decline between the 20 and 50 years and lowest levels after 70 years.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.