Melanopic irradiance defines the impact of evening display light on sleep latency, melatonin and alertness
- PMID: 36854795
- PMCID: PMC9974389
- DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04598-4
Melanopic irradiance defines the impact of evening display light on sleep latency, melatonin and alertness
Abstract
Evening light-emitting visual displays may disrupt sleep, suppress melatonin and increase alertness. Here, we control melanopic irradiance independent of display luminance and colour, in 72 healthy males 4 h before habitual bedtime and expose each of them to one of four luminance levels (i.e., dim light, smartphone, tablet or computer screen illuminance) at a low and a high melanopic irradiance setting. Low melanopic light shortens the time to fall asleep, attenuates evening melatonin suppression, reduces morning melatonin, advances evening melatonin onset and decreases alertness compared to high melanopic light. In addition, we observe dose-dependent increases in sleep latency, reductions in melatonin concentration and delays in melatonin onset as a function of melanopic irradiance-not so for subjective alertness. We identify melanopic irradiance as an appropriate parameter to mitigate the unwanted effects of screen use at night. Our results may help the many people who sit in front of screens in the evening or at night to fall asleep faster, feel sleepier, and have a more stable melatonin phase by spectrally tuning the visual display light without compromising the visual appearance.
© 2023. The Author(s).
Conflict of interest statement
I.S. and H.C.S. do not report any conflict of interest related to lighting. O.S. is listed as an inventor on the following patents: US8646939B2—Display system having a circadian effect on humans; DE102010047207B4—Projection system and method for projecting image content; US8994292B2—Adaptive lighting system; WO2006013041A1—Projection device and filter therefor; WO2016092112A1—Method for the selective adjustment of a desired brightness and/or colour of a specific spatial area, and data processing device therefor. O.S. is a member of the Daylight Academy, Good Light Group and Swiss Lighting Society. O.S. has had the following commercial interests in the last two years (2020–2022) related to lighting: Investigator-initiated research grants from SBB, Skyguide, Toshiba, Schneider, Lighting Europe, VW, VELUX and LightnTec. R.J.L. is a named inventor on patent applications relating to the design of multiprimary displays (“Improvements in image formation” and “Matching colours for a 5 primary display”); has received investigator-initiated research support from Philips Lighting and Signify; and honoraria from Samsung Electronics. M.S. is named as an inventor on a patent application (“Determining metameric settings for a non-linear light source”, WO2020161499A1). C.C. has had the following commercial interests in the last two years (2020–2022) related to lighting: honoraria, travel, accommodation and/or meals for invited keynote lectures, conference presentations or teaching from Toshiba Materials, Velux, Firalux, Lighting Europe, Electrosuisse, Novartis, Roche, Elite, Servier, and WIR Bank. C.C. is a member of the Daylight Academy.
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