Lead Performer: University of California, San Diego – San Diego, CA
DOE Total Funding: $653,625
Project Term: October 1, 2017 – September 30, 2019
Funding Type: SSL R&D Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) (DE-FOA-0001613)
Project Objective
Shift work is accompanied by a variety of well-documented negative consequences, including decrements in physiological and psychological health as well as increased rates of accidents and errors. This is the result of the interaction between sleep disruption, circadian disturbance, and light during physiological night. Individuals working at night must sleep during the day, and daytime sleep is generally poorer in quality compared to nighttime sleep. Compelling evidence suggests the most promising countermeasures to mitigate the negative effects of shift work schedules are light-based applications, which may serve to increase circadian health and alertness. While basic science research has laid the foundation for how to best design light for such purposes, applied work testing those evidence-based interventions in real-world settings is lacking. This project will develop and test the efficacy of novel light-based circadian interventions for enhancing sleep, health, alertness, performance, and quality of life in nightshift workers. Part 1 of the project will rigorously characterize baseline sleep and circadian health in hospital nightshift workers, and will develop two different light sources to be used in a hospital setting requiring around-the-clock care. The first architectural light source will be spectrally engineered to provide an enhanced circadian signal, and the second individually administered light panel will be designed to minimize circadian input while increasing alertness. Part 2 of the project will evaluate the efficacy of these two evidence-based light interventions for optimizing circadian health and alertness in hospital workers.
Project Impact
The project aims to first quantify current levels of sleep, circadian health, and performance in nightshift workers in a hospital emergency department. This will be achieved via two weeks of continuous actigraphy recording, assessment of salivary hormone profiles, and cognitive performance testing. Next, the researchers will evaluate the efficacy of circadian lighting interventions that show promise in the laboratory environment but remain untested out in the field. Specifically, in collaboration with industry partners, the team will develop a novel architectural light source with blue-enriched LED technology for installation in an area of the emergency room that provides illumination for shiftwork staff but not patients. Using spectral engineering, that architectural lighting application will be designed to optimize circadian input and will be administered solely during the early hours of the night shift, in order to prevent sleep disruption and/or rhythm disturbances caused by exposure to a potent circadian stimulus too close to desired sleep times. In a second test condition, the enhanced circadian lighting will continue to illuminate the emergency room environment for all participants early in the shift. Once extinguished, during the latter part of the shift, additional 15-minute exposure(s) of light treatment will be employed to elicit acute alerting effects as needed in individuals, based on deficits in performance and/or subjective sleepiness scores that are relayed in real time. The same measures employed for the baseline assessment will be collected again during the intervention phase. Results pre- and post-intervention as well as between the two different conditions will be compared in order to establish the relative benefits of these novel lighting strategies. This applied and translational work may serve to enhance clinician health, performance, and safety, thereby improving patient quality of care and outcomes.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: James Brodrick, James.Brodrick@ee.doe.gov
Lead Performer: Gena Glickman, University of California, San Diego