Comments on: Lighting the Way http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/ Dr. John Grohol's daily update on all things in psychology and mental health. Since 1999. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:26:24 +0000 hourly 1 By: Relaxing Sleep | Psychology source http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/comment-page-1/#comment-240675 Relaxing Sleep | Psychology source Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:50:09 +0000 http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/#comment-240675 [...] The type of lighting in your home may be a contributing factor to insomnia as well. This new JAMA study did not look into that angle. Bright light therapy for seasonal depression is proven effective, but reverse applications for insomnia and mania have scant research. [...] [...] The type of lighting in your home may be a contributing factor to insomnia as well. This new JAMA study did not look into that angle. Bright light therapy for seasonal depression is proven effective, but reverse applications for insomnia and mania have scant research. [...]

]]> By: Relaxing Sleep - World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/comment-page-1/#comment-236614 Relaxing Sleep - World of Psychology Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:18:43 +0000 http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/#comment-236614 [...] The type of lighting in your home may be a contributing factor to insomnia as well. This new JAMA study did not look into that angle. Bright light therapy for seasonal depression is proven effective, but reverse applications for insomnia and mania have scant research. (No Ratings Yet)  Loading ... [...] [...] The type of lighting in your home may be a contributing factor to insomnia as well. This new JAMA study did not look into that angle. Bright light therapy for seasonal depression is proven effective, but reverse applications for insomnia and mania have scant research. (No Ratings Yet)  Loading … [...]

]]> By: Hank Roberts http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/comment-page-1/#comment-197185 Hank Roberts Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:44:28 +0000 http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/11/lighting-the-way/#comment-197185 In the above, there's a mangled link for "… increase of alertness under blue light exposure…" Correct link is: http://www.escrs.org/EVENTS/06LONDON/sessiondetails.asp?id=146&category=Free&sessiondate=10/09/2006 This is what's there; remember this is a study looking at cataract implants (whether they should block blue light; conclusion is probably not; normal aging of the normal lens also blocks blue light, which I do wonder about. (Cognitive decline? could it be just loss of enough blue light in elderly people who don't get much daylight outdoors anyhow?). On rereading it, I think this is important. What we do at home; we have the low-blue GE 'Buglight' compact fluorescents as general evening house lighting; we have the pure amber LEDs as bedroom light for the last reading of the day. If we had a TV it'd have a big yellow Rosco gel over it for evenings; both our laptops do have the yellow gels, flipped up for daytime and down for evening use. ABSTRACT: Blue-light filtering IOLs: Between retinal protection and reduced mental effiency? First results of a pilot study Purpose: Blue-light filtering IOLs were originally developed to provide retinal protection among cataract patients. Very short wavelength (blue) light is maximally effective at affecting the circadian system. We under-took a pilot study to determine if exposure to blue light could have a positive impact on mental effi-ciency. Setting: Eye Clinic Minden, Germany and University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Germany. Methods: Investigation of literature and published data, first results of a pilot study with 44 test subjects each with light exposure of conventional room light, blue light and yellow light, measurement of the speed of information processing, the basis of fluid intelligence performance. Results: Clinical research has shown that blue light is crucial in modulating sleep-wake patterns and influencing alertness. Consistent with these results we found even under low blue-light conditions that the feeling of alertness (Wilcoxon test, exact, one sided, P = 0.023) as well as the speed of information processing (p = 0.020) increased significantly compared to yellow-light exposure. The increase of alertness under blue light exposure correlated significantly with the rise of the information processing speed (rho = 0.34; p = 0.016, one sided). Conclusion: It is to be feared that blue-light filtering IOLs would negatively affect the feeling of alertness and mental fitness due to the general reduction in light transmission and the specific strong absorption of blue light. K. Gerstmeyer, S. Lehrl, S. Bleich, GERMANY In the above, there’s a mangled link for

“… increase of alertness under blue light exposure…”

Correct link is:

http://www.escrs.org/EVENTS/06LONDON/sessiondetails.asp?id=146&category=Free&sessiondate=10/09/2006

This is what’s there; remember this is a study looking at cataract implants (whether they should block blue light; conclusion is probably not; normal aging of the normal lens also blocks blue light, which I do wonder about.

(Cognitive decline? could it be just loss of enough blue light in elderly people who don’t get much daylight outdoors anyhow?).

On rereading it, I think this is important.

What we do at home; we have the low-blue GE ‘Buglight’ compact fluorescents as general evening house lighting; we have the pure amber LEDs as bedroom light for the last reading of the day.

If we had a TV it’d have a big yellow Rosco gel over it for evenings; both our laptops do have the yellow gels, flipped up for daytime and down for evening use.

ABSTRACT:
Blue-light filtering IOLs: Between retinal protection and reduced mental effiency? First results of a pilot study

Purpose: Blue-light filtering IOLs were originally developed to provide retinal protection among cataract patients. Very short wavelength (blue) light is maximally effective at affecting the circadian system. We under-took a pilot study to determine if exposure to blue light could have a positive impact on mental effi-ciency.

Setting: Eye Clinic Minden, Germany and University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Germany.

Methods: Investigation of literature and published data, first results of a pilot study with 44 test subjects each with light exposure of conventional room light, blue light and yellow light, measurement of the speed of information processing, the basis of fluid intelligence performance.

Results: Clinical research has shown that blue light is crucial in modulating sleep-wake patterns and influencing alertness. Consistent with these results we found even under low blue-light conditions that the feeling of alertness (Wilcoxon test, exact, one sided, P = 0.023) as well as the speed of information processing (p = 0.020) increased significantly compared to yellow-light exposure. The increase of alertness under blue light exposure correlated significantly with the rise of the information processing speed (rho = 0.34; p = 0.016, one sided). Conclusion: It is to be feared that blue-light filtering IOLs would negatively affect the feeling of alertness and mental fitness due to the general reduction in light transmission and the specific strong absorption of blue light.

K. Gerstmeyer, S. Lehrl, S. Bleich, GERMANY

]]>