the.com/pineal gland
A pea-sized clock that tells your brain when to sleep, using darkness as the alarm.
means A small, pea-shaped gland deep in the brain that releases melatonin in response to darkness, helping regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
from Named for its shape — from Latin 'pinea,' meaning pine cone, because the gland looks like a tiny one tucked near the center of the brain. The name is purely anatomical, but the gland has a mystical résumé: Descartes famously called it the 'seat of the soul,' believing it was where mind met body. Modern science has traded that poetic title for a more precise one — it's the body's light-sensing clockmaker, translating darkness into the hormone melatonin.
- location
- sits dead center of the brain, between the hemispheres
- job
- converts light signals into melatonin at night
- descartes thought
- called it the seat of the soul
- weird fact
- contains calcium deposits visible on brain scans