Blue Light Makes People Alert at Night

[__Kratos__]

There's much more than meets the eye to how we perceive light, researchers have learned in recent years. The latest revelation: blue light helps fend off drowsiness in the middle of the night.

A small study of 16 volunteers found that exposure to short-wavelength light, or blue light, perked them up immediately.

"Light exposure to this system, particularly blue light, directly reduces sleepiness,” said Steven Lockley of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. “Subjects exposed to blue light were able to sustain a high level of alertness during the night when people usually feel most sleepy, and these results suggest that light may be a powerful countermeasure for the negative effects of fatigue for people who work at night."

The study, sponsored by National Space Biomedical Research Institute, is detailed in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

"The effects lasted as long as the blue light was on, which was 6.5 hours," Lockley told LiveScience. "I expect it would last at least for a few hours more if we extended the light exposure for longer although not ad infinitum. We hope to do studies with longer exposures shortly."

The work adds to other evidence that the human eye sees things we're not consciously aware of. Other research has shown that the eye's hidden perceptive abilities help control our 24-hour internal clock, so we know when to sleep and when to wake.

"These findings add to the body of evidence that illustrates that there is a novel photoreceptor system that exists in the human eye in addition to that used for sight," Lockley said.

Eventually the finding could lead to ways to improve alertness in nighttime drivers, shift workers, pilots or astronauts, said Lockley, who is also an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

More work needs to be done, however. Blue light in the wrong doses can be dangerous to the eye.

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The real reason UM is blue!!!

This is pretty cool though, I switched my computer's background to a bright blue. Maybe I will stay up even longer now.

Eventually the finding could lead to ways to improve alertness in nighttime drivers, shift workers, pilots or astronauts, said Lockley, who is also an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Put a small blue light on the center steering wheel perhaps?

[magnetar]

The sky is blue. Then at the end of the day, the last light to reach our eyes may be toward the red end of the spectrum.

I have a neighbor, a computer engineer. He and his wife commute from Indonesia. They are here six months and then return, every year.

They keep a room next to the den, with subtle illumination.

Late into the night, a deep saphire blue light slowly pulsates.

It is intriguing. And weird.

[Rykster]

The sky is blue. Then at the end of the day, the last light to reach our eyes may be toward the red end of the spectrum.

That just seems so natural as to go without saying. That we have evolved to that "stimulus/response" via the natural colors that que our biochemistry and metabolism. Therefore it makes perfect sense to me that the color of daylight would trigger such a response. I wonder if they did a control with different colors? I would be imtrigued to see if hues of red and orange would trigger an opposite effect? I also worry about the possible health risks if used to keep a person awake and alert for extended periods of time.

On a lighter note:

"We hope to do studies with longer exposures shortly."

Get it? Longer, shortly?

OK, I suk

[smallpackage]

Sounds like I'll be replacing my lights with bluelights. Who needs sleep anyway?

edit: Anyone know where I can find them, I'd like to try this for my own sake. It's just that I can't find them on online stores. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?

Edited February 5, 2006 by smallpackage

[Rykster]

Sounds like I'll be replacing my lights with bluelights. Who needs sleep anyway?

edit: Anyone know where I can find them, I'd like to try this for my own sake. It's just that I can't find them on online stores. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?

Wouldn't a filter do the trick?

[smallpackage]

You mean like some blue plastic wrap? Might be a little ghetto.

[Rykster]

You mean like some blue plastic wrap? Might be a little ghetto.

Yeah, definitely ghetto.

As well as a fire hazzard.

What I meant was more like what a photographer might use. Try a photography shop.

[Stellar]

You mean like some blue plastic wrap? Might be a little ghetto.

Yup. And then you have to also deal with the possible fire hazzard of putting blue plastic wrap over your lights.

[__Kratos__]

Sounds like I'll be replacing my lights with bluelights. Who needs sleep anyway?

edit: Anyone know where I can find them, I'd like to try this for my own sake. It's just that I can't find them on online stores. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?

Any home improvement center should have them; Menards, Home Depot, Lowes, Fleet n' Farm. I've even see the blue light bulbs at Walmart and Shopko.

Yup. And then you have to also deal with the possible fire hazzard of putting blue plastic wrap over your lights.

Some common sense goes a long way, Stellar.

Edited February 5, 2006 by __Kratos__

[Bella-Angelique]

I see lots of blue lights may soon be on their way into some neighborhoods.

Police lights, ambulance lights, .............