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Estimating dim light melatonin onset time in children using delta changes in melatonin

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Abstract

We aimed to establish a method for estimating dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) using mathematical slopes calculated from melatonin concentrations at three sampling points before and after sleep in children. The saliva of 30 children (mean age ± SD: 10.2 ± 1.3 years old) was collected under dim-light conditions up to six times every hour starting at 17:30 (t17), namely, 18:30 (t18), 19:30 (t19), 20:30 (t20), 21:30 (t21), 22:30 (t22), and 23:30 (t23), in the evening, and at 6:00 (t30) the following morning. We calculated \({SLOPE}_{on}\) (mathematical slope between melatonin concentrations at t18 and t20, t21 or t22), \({SLOPE}_{off}\) (the slope between t20, t21 or t22, and t30), and \(\Delta SLOPE\), which is generated by subtracting \({SLOPE}_{on}\) from \({SLOPE}_{off}\). DLMO was estimated by multiple regression analysis with the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method using \({SLOPE}_{on}\) and \({SLOPE}_{off}\), and \(\Delta SLOPE\). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the estimated and measured DLMOs was used as the index of estimation accuracy. DLMOs estimated using multiple regression equations with \({SLOPE}_{on}\) and \({SLOPE}_{off}\) yielded significant ICCs for the measured DLMOs, with the largest ICC at t20 (ICC = 0.634). Additionally, the ICC between the estimated and measured DLMOs using the equation with \(\Delta SLOPE\) was significant, with a larger ICC at t20 (ICC = 0.726) than that of the equation with \({SLOPE}_{on}\) and \({SLOPE}_{off}\). Our results showed that DLMO could be estimated with a certain level of accuracy from salivary melatonin levels at three time points before and after sleep in children.

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Abbreviations

DLMO:

Dim light melatonin onset

t18, t20, t21, t22, and t30:

Salivary melatonin measured at 18:30, 20:30, 21:30, 22:30 and 6:00 (the next morning)

Mel1st :

Melatonin concentration at t18

Mel2nd :

Melatonin concentration at t20, t21, or t22

Mel3rd :

Melatonin concentration at t30

\({SLOPE}_{on}\) :

Slope between Mel1st and Mel2nd

\({SLOPE}_{off}\) :

Slope between Mel2nd and Mel3rd

\(\Delta SLOPE\) :

Difference between \({SLOPE}_{on}\) and \({SLOPE}_{off}\)

DLMOact :

Measured DLMO value

DLMOest :

Estimated DLMO value

LOOCV:

Leave-one-out cross-validation

RMSE:

Root mean square error

MAE:

Mean absolute error

ICC:

Intraclass correlation coefficient

LoA:

Limit of agreement

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants for their participation in this study.

Funding

This study was supported in part by the JSPS KAKENHI (JP19K21785). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Taisuke Eto and Shingo Kitamura authors are equal contributions to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sleep-Wake Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8553, Japan

    Taisuke Eto & Shingo Kitamura

  2. Department of Human Life Design and Science, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minami-Ku, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan

    Taisuke Eto & Shigekazu Higuchi

  3. Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Kodaira, Japan

    Taisuke Eto

  4. Research Institute for Children’s Physical Health, Nippon Sport Science University, 7-1-1 Fukasawa, Setagaya-Ku, Tokyo, 158-8508, Japan

    Akiko Shikano & Shingo Noi

  5. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Teikyo Heisei University, 4-21-2 Nakano, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo, 164-8530, Japan

    Kosuke Tanabe

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  1. Taisuke Eto
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Contributions

SK, AS, and SN designed the study. AS and SN acquired the samples. TE, SK, and SH analyzed the data. TE and SK drafted the manuscript. AS, KT, SH, and SN reviewed the manuscript. All the authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shingo Noi.

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Nippon Sport Science University, Japan (Approval No. 019-H057). All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of institutional and/or national research committees. All participants provided informed consent.

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Eto, T., Kitamura, S., Shikano, A. et al. Estimating dim light melatonin onset time in children using delta changes in melatonin. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 22, 239–246 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-023-00493-x

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