During pregnancy, the foetus receives its daily dose of melatonin from its mother through the placenta. Its own melatonin production starts only a few days after birth and sometimes it takes a year or more before the pineal body settles down to its natural production cycle. This may be the explanation why babies very often have irregular sleep patterns.

A child's melatonin level increases steadily until it reaches the age of seven. At this time it causes the hypophysis to release growth hormones during sleeping phases. The strongest growth phase with children corresponds with the age where they sleep most - from birth until the age of three or four.

Just before the child reaches puberty, blood volume decreases due to the bodily growth, which in turn leads to a "thinning" of the daily melatonin release within the blood. The resulting decrease of the melatonin level causes the release of two sexual hormones, LH (luteinising hormone) and FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone), which actually start the process of puberty. With boys this development leads to sperm production and with girls it starts the menstrual cycle.

After puberty, at the beginning of adulthood, melatonin production slowly and steadily starts to decrease. At the age of about 45, melatonin levels drop drastically. The pineal body no longer releases "normal" amounts of melatonin and thus the process of ageing starts. For women, this normally means the onset of the menopause. Even though men normally remain fertile, their sexual function still decreases significantly. These, as well as other symptoms of ageing are the immediate results of the reduced function of the pineal body - it gradually loses control over the other body functions. Pierpaoli remarks, ". . . the conductor loses his power . . ."
Disturbances of the pineal body:
Most recently, scientists at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich have proven that the human brain (like the brain of other vertebrates) contains finely distributed magnetic material - magnetite molecules. American, German and Italian scientists have confirmed this as a fact. Based on studies made with Canadian Gray Geese, which migrate over thousands of kilometers on their annual voyage from Northern Europe to Canada across the North Atlantic Ocean, it was proven that these birds navigate their route by means of the magnetic field of the earth. The magnetite molecules in their brain obviously serve as their built-in compass.

Scientists at the Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover (Germany) published a paper in 1995, according to which they also found magnetite molecules in the pineal body. In various tests with mice and rats it was proven that the function of the pineal body could be disturbed even by relatively weak electro-magnetic fields, as propagated by normal house-hold appliances like micro-wave ovens, televisions, transformers and cordless telephones, as well as by computers and high-voltage power lines. Under the influence of these fields melatonin production was dramatically reduced. The same tests also showed, that the drop in melatonin production caused by extended exposure of the test subjects to "electro-smog" caused a dramatic increase in development of breast-cancer generated by oestrogens and so-called pseudo-oestrogens. Cancer research will have to look into these findings in detail in the future.

According to today's knowledge, the pineal body and its melatonin production can be negatively affected by the following circumstances:
· bright light during night time or irregular sleep-wake rhythms (e.g. shift work),
· repeated travel over several time-zones, particularly in a West to East direction (e.g. flight crews and frequent travellers),
· exposure to electro-magnetic and magnetic fields, particularly during night time and sleeping hours (e.g. bedside electric alarm clocks or radio appliances, excessive TV-radiation at close quarters, excessive use of radio-controlled telephones, especially those using so-called "pulsed-fields"),
· electric high-voltage power lines in the vicinity of living areas (e.g. along railway lines).
Disturbances of the normal function of the pineal gland from outside seem to accelerate its ageing process and calcification. The resulting negative effects seem to explain why certain degenerative ailments have increased in the industrialised countries more than elsewhere during the past thirty years - notably immune deficiencies (especially concerning certain types of cancer), breast cancer with women and prostate cancer with men, circulation and cardio-vascular problems, heart disease, arthritis and other rheumatic ailments, as well as allergies, sleep problems, mental disturbances, depressions and other "ailments of old age".