Sleep modulation of neuroendocrine function: developmental changes in gonadotropin-releasing hormone secretion during sexual maturation.

To assess sleep-associated changes in gonadotropin-releasing hormone secretion during sexual maturation, we studied nighttime and daytime patterns of LH and FSH secretion in two groups with qualitatively similar sex steroid levels: girls with central precocious puberty and young adult women in the early follicular phase of an ovulatory menstrual cycle. In the girls with central precocious puberty, all indices of LH secretion were significantly higher at night than during the day (mean LH levels, 12 +/- 2 versus 5 +/- 1 IU/L, p less than or equal to 0.01; LH pulse amplitude 16 +/- 2 versus 7 +/- 1 IU/L, p less than or equal to 0.01; and LH pulse frequency 0.70 +/- 0.05 versus 0.35 +/- 0.08 pulse/patient-h, p less than or equal to 0.01). Girls with a history of menses, who were presumably the most mature, lacked this diurnal variability. Mean nocturnal FSH levels were only slightly higher than daytime levels (7.6 +/- 0.5 versus 7.2 +/- 0.5 IU/L, p less than or equal to 0.05) resulting in alternating periods of LH (nighttime) and FSH (daytime) predominance in this pubertal population.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)