Original articleBlue Blocker Glasses as a Countermeasure for Alerting Effects of Evening Light-Emitting Diode Screen Exposure in Male Teenagers
Section snippets
Study participants
Healthy, male, high-school students between 15 and 17 years old were recruited for the study in the Basel (Switzerland) area through oral presentations in schools, Web postings, and advertisements. Potential participants underwent a screening survey about their general health, sleep, and well-being (see Supplementary Data). Thirteen study volunteers (mean ± standard deviation, 16.46 ± .66 years old) were finally included in the study. Supplementary Table 1 summarizes their screening survey data.
Ambulatory actimetry
Twenty-four–hour activity profiles preceding the laboratory nights were not significantly different between the BB and CL conditions (n = 13; F(1,564) = .54; p = .463), but an expected significant difference for the factor “time of day” (F(23,564) = 34.23; p < .001) was found, and there was no significant interaction “glasses × time of day” (F(23,564) = .45; p = .988). Moreover, none of the actimetry-derived sleep parameters showed significant differences between the BB and CL conditions;
Discussion
Our data show that BB glasses can decrease LED screen–induced melatonin suppression and modulate subjective sleepiness and vigilance attention levels in the late evening hours in a sample of male adolescents. Compared with the control condition (CL glasses), our participants felt significantly more sleepy and less vigilant during the BB condition, although subsequent all-night sleep stage characteristics were not significantly altered. BB application can thus attenuate light-induced activating
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Claudia Renz and Bühlmann Laboratories, Allschwil, Switzerland, for the melatonin assays, the volunteers for participating, and Alessia Ruf for helping to conduct the study. Many thanks to Dr. Alexandre Sasseville, Chron-optic Quebec, Canada, for providing the clear lenses control glasses, Dr. Oliver Stefani, Fraunhofer IAO/University Stuttgart IAT, Stuttgart, Germany, for providing the in-laboratory light-emitting diode screens, and the Jacobs Foundation for financial support.
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Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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These authors contributed equally to the work.