Mono and Melatonin

July 19, 2006 2:17 PM

Is there any printed studies or evidence that having had mononucleosis or a similar infectious disease could permantly affect a person's melatonin production?

I've had serious insomnia for a few years, ever since I had mono. My doctor and I were talking about it yesterday, and he said to try Melatonin supplements before we discussed actual chemical sleeping pills. I took one last night, and within an hour, the weight of 3 years of sleep deprevation was pressing down on me. (I didn't actually get that much sleep, though, because I panicked and fought the sleep ... but that's an entirely different post.)

Today, even though I didn't sleep that much, I feel so much better -- a level of groundedness and focus that I haven't felt in years. I haven't changed anything else, so it's got to have been the Melatonin. Yes, I'll be in touch with my doctor about it after I've collected more personal evidence (I have a follow-up appointment scheduled already), but in the meantime...

Have any studies been done linking an infectious, mono-like disease, or Mono itself, and a lack of ability to sleep afterwards? Or a change in biochemsitry?

posted by SpecialK to health & fitness (4 comments total)

... And gah, you can see from the horrible grammar and inability to click 'spell check' that the lack of sleep really IS affecting me, even though I've gotten more work done today than I did in the past month.
posted by SpecialK at 2:35 PM on July 19, 2006

Pubmed would be a good place to start, barring a sufficient answer from a Mefite.
posted by shoos at 2:41 PM on July 19, 2006

I don't know for sure ... but I've had mono pretty badly (to the point where they tested for sleep apnea and did some CT scans of my sinuses before we even did the mono spot test and other blood work). I've had it twice, actually (yes, it's possible), and none of the doctors I saw said anything about sleep.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 4:47 PM on July 19, 2006

I did the pubmed search and found one thing:
Mononucleosis and chronic daytime sleepiness. A long-term follow up study.
The full length paper is not online, though.

I had mono as a nine year old, and I wasn't so much sleepy afterwards, but for years I would get tired very easily, even when I was getting enough sleep and exercise.
posted by easternblot at 8:24 PM on July 19, 2006