At the breakfast table, your roommate says, "Oops! I forgot to take my melatonin last night. I'd better take it now." How do you respond?

Question

A.  "Good idea -- you don't want your bones to get brittle."
B.  "Be sure not to take too much, or your blood sugar could get dangerously low."
C.  "Don't take it now - it regulates biological rhythms, and is normally high at night and low during the day."
D.  "Don't take it after a meal - it promotes the 'fight-or-flight' response, not 'rest-and-digest'."

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content
What do you already know about melatonin? What other information is related to the question?

Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
 

Answer 1

C.  "Don't take it now - it regulates biological rhythms, and is normally high at night and low during the day."

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        · How does melatonin function?
What type of thinking is required?
            o This is an evaluate question because you have to consider different reasons why the roommate should or should not take melatonin after thinking about the role of melatonin.

Gather Content
What do you already know about melatonin? What other information is related to the question?
        · Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland deep within the brain. It helps to regulate circadian rhythms and is activated in the dark. Thus melatonin levels are high at night and promote sleep. Thus it would be unwise to take melatonin in the morning because it would make you sleepy.

Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        · Each answer describes the effects of a different hormone. The answer referring to brittle bones may be referring to calcitonin, which inhibits loss of calcium from bone, or parathyroid hormone, which also regulates calcium by removing calcium from bone. The answer mentioning blood sugar dropping is referring to insulin, which promotes the uptake of glucose from the blood to the cells. The answer mentioning the “flight-or-flight” response is referring to epinephrine or norepinephrine. The answer mentioning biological rhythms must be the correct answer since melatonin regulates circadian rhythms such as the sleep-wake cycle.

Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
       o Answering this question correctly depended upon understanding the function of melatonin and thinking about the effects of taking melatonin in the morning. If you got the answer correct, great! If not, where did you go wrong? Did you remember that melatonin affects biological rhythms such as the sleep-wake cycle? Did you see how the other responses fit into the roles of other hormones?