A Blue-Enriched Light Intervention Counteracts the Alertness Decrement Among Mine Workers on Extended 12-Hour Night
Marc Hébert1, Andrée-Anne Lavigne, Julie Auclair
1From the Centre de recherche CERVO, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et des Services Sociaux de la Capitale Nationale, Québec, Canada (M.H., A.-A.L., J.-S.M., K.F., J.D.G., M.-A.D.); Département d'Ophtalmologie et d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie-Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval, Québec, Canada (M.H., L.L.); ÉCOBES-Recherche et transfert, Cégep de Jonquière, Saguenay, Canada (J.A., L.L.); and Département de la santé, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Canada (L.L.).
Objective:
The aim of the study is to assess whether a blue-enriched light intervention improves nocturnal alertness and daytime sleep of night workers.
Methods:
Thirteen miners performing 12-hour night shifts for 12 consecutive nights were exposed to a baseline and a blue-enriched light condition. All subjects wore an actigraph and completed a Psychomotor Vigilance Task at the beginning and at the end of each shift. Data were analyzed with linear mixed models.
Results:
In the blue-enriched light condition, the daily increase in median reaction time (RT), mean RT, slowest 10% of RT, and fastest 10% of RT was lower than that observed in the baseline condition between day 1 and 12 ( P ≤ 0.05).
Conclusions:
The addition of blue-enriched light during a long period of extended night shifts counteracts most of the daily decline in nocturnal alertness observed in the standard lighting condition, irrespectively of sleep duration and sleep efficiency.
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