AMBER LENSES TO BLOCK BLUE LIGHT AND IMPROVE SLEEP: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Source: Chronobiology International, Volume 26, Number 8, December 2009 , pp. 1602-1612(11)

“… the amber lens group experienced significant (p < .001) improvement in sleep quality relative to the control group and positive affect (p = .005). Mood also improved significantly relative to controls…."

It begins:

Study sheds light on ‘teenage night owl syndrome’
Students are going to sleep later and may be underperforming in class because they’re not getting enough bright light in the morning, researchers say. Better school lighting may help.
By Thomas H. Maugh II

February 17, 2010

Riding in school buses in the early morning, then sitting in poorly lighted classrooms are the main reasons students have trouble getting to sleep at night, according to new research.

Teenagers, like everyone else, need bright lights in the morning, particularly in the blue wavelengths, to synchronize their inner, circadian rhythms with nature’s cycles of day and night.

If they are deprived of blue light during the morning, they go to sleep an average of six minutes later each night, until their bodies are completely out of sync with the school day, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reported Tuesday in the journal Neuroendocrinology Letters….

http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.118-a22

Holzman DC 2010. What’s in a Color? The Unique Human Health Effect of Blue Light. Environ Health Perspect 118:A22-A27. doi:10.1289/ehp.118-a22

http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/slideshow.action?uri=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.118-a22&imageURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.118-a22.g001

—-brief excerpt—-

Czeisler was able to suppress melatonin secretion and shift circadian rhythm in the latter patients by exposing them to bright light. “That just blew us away,” he says.

But it didn’t blow away skeptical journal editors. One who rejected the paper said, “These people aren’t really blind, they are lying,” according to Czeisler, despite the subjects’ failure to perceive a neuro-ophthalmologist’s brightest light when he shined it directly into their eyes. After 5 years and 20 rejections, the New England Journal of Medicine published the paper 5 January 1995 after first making Czeisler test more subjects and cover both their eyes and their whole bodies, “just in case light might be penetrating some other body part.”
The Story of a New Receptor Top

A major milestone came with the 1998 discovery of melanopsin retinal ganglion cells, a new type of photoreceptor in the eye. These cells provide signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the brain’s master clock. They project to many other brain regions as well, influencing myriad aspects of human physiology. Moreover, research would show, they are uniquely sensitive to blue light.

The discovery of a new photoreceptor was largely unanticipated given that the eye’s anatomy had been well described for more than a century. But Russell Foster, now head of the Nuffield Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, wasn’t all that surprised. In the early 1980s, Foster was researching avian circadian tracking. It had long been known that birds use neither eyes nor pineal gland for circadian entrainment, but had other, anomalous photoreceptors deep in their brains. By the early 1990s he had begun work on fish and mammalian circadian tracking….
—–end excerpt—-

Nonsense. Who told you or where did you read that? You can look this stuff up for yourself.

For fluorescent lamps, a tiny amount of mercury, usually in solid form, is sealed inside the glass.

If you do break a fluorescent tube, read about it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mercury+cleanup+urban+legend

Here’s one of several posts:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/03/12/light-and-dark/#comment-187328

http://www.rosco.com/australia/filters/supergel.asp#READ shows you how to read the published curves for their filters.

Glasses are an alternative; one post was:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/03/12/light-and-dark/#comment-194610

Remember your house lighting matters; you might

I have a particular interest in this topic due to my Occupational Health and Safety background. Plus I have always found staring at computer monitors to make me a bit tense.

I have 2 monitors – one is a white-led back lit LCD and the other is a CCFL backlit LCD.

My questions for the wise people here are:

- Do white-LED and fluorescent light sources used in computer monitors emit a similar amount of blue light?
- Would using one of these filters (http://www.rosco.com/australia/filters/supergel.asp) have the same effect of reducing the blue light emission in either monitor?
- Ultimately I am going to keep either the LED or fluorescent backlit monitor with the addition of a filter to eliminate or reduce the blue light emission. Your thoughts on which technology?

Cheers!

I moved again, actually…

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/

A ten year old site, run by one guy, in a wheelchair, on disability — one of the great places on the Internet.

Low/no-blue lights are easier to find this fall.

Just an example (haven’t tried these; Osram is a familiar brand name; never heard of “Silver”).

http://www.bulbamerica.com/search.php?action=list&submitsubmit_form=1&datakeyword=yellow+LED

(Most, not all, of the 16-odd search results for that link are “yellow” — usually means the same as “amber” but there’s

http://www.bulbamerica.com/search.php?action=list&submitsubmit_form=1&datakeyword=amber+LED

Shipping again is pricey, but Osram at least ought to show up or be available from local hardware stores, maybe special order.

Anything with “lots” of LEDs is older tech, probably dozens of the little 5mm LEDs, probably less bright, probably lots cheaper, likely on closeout. Anything with 2 or 3 is using the new ’superbright’ LEDs.

Searching, read the fine print, I’ve never found a sure way to separate ‘yellow’ or ‘amber’ LEDs from things with ‘white’ LEDs and yellow trim or body.

Remember NO DIMMERS, unless specifically labeled OK.
A few seconds on a dimmer can kill a LED light dead.

Another familiar brand name, GE, has a yellow LED nightlight out now for about $3, another to look/ask for at your local hardware store.
http://www.google.com/search?q=GE+Freeze+LED+Night+Light

I’m going to stop the speculative “might be good” pointers for a while. Once I’ve bought specific ones, I’ll comment on what seems good, and send some to Craig at the http://www.ledmuseum.com for evaluation too.

Nightlight, about half the Ace store retail price, tho’ your local Ace store certainly can get it for you and save paying (ouch, about $12) for shipping.
Well, maybe I’ll buy a few dozen and give them as gifts ….. Sandra, did you ever find lights for your new apartment? I have a few more links I’m checking out for inexpensive amber LEDs now

ACE# 3269552
MFR# A00-ECONO-LED
$2.09 from http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/%285pn3hk45qry4wyqc1wi2ia3f%29/productdetails.aspx?sku=3269552&source=GoogleBase

(“AG Lock & Hardware An Ace Hardware Dealer in Brooklyn, NY”– I bought CFLs from them quite a while back and they were prompt and a good supplier)

Big banks of bright blue-white LEDs are coming to ‘parking lots all over the country’ soon.

Time to invest in yellow glasses and sleeping pill companies, I fear. This utter blank lack of awareness of the knowledge and warnings about the effects of light is just amazing.

I wish that paywalled cautionary article linked above were free somewnere (sigh).