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| Summer 1999 issue | . | Oh, Those Dark Circles | |
LINKS: Notre Dame's Department of Biological Sciences |
 Why do we get dark circles under our eyes when we don't get enough
sleep?No one knows for sure, but when a person is under emotional or physical stress, including lack of sleep, the pituitary gland, at the base of the brain, releases a stress hormone. The hormone binds to the receptors of pigment cells located throughout the skin, stimulating them to darken the skin's pigmentation. People with high concentrations of these cells -- called melanocytes -- under the eyes are prone to "dark circles" when they experience stress. Once the stress ends, the pituitary stops producing the hormone, and the dark circles disappear. Source: Kenneth Olson, adjunct professor, biological sciences |
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