Dataset Information

Controlling light-dark exposure patterns rather than sleep schedules determines circadian phase.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine, in a field study circadian phase changes associated with two different light-dark exposures patterns, one that was congruent with a phase advanced sleep schedule and one that was incongruent with an advanced schedule.

Methods

Twenty-one adults (mean age±standard deviation=22.5±3.9 years; 11 women) participated in the 12day study. After a five-day baseline period, participants were all given individualized, fixed, 90-minute advanced sleep schedules for one week. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, an advance group with a light-dark exposure prescription designed to advance circadian phase or a delay group with light-dark exposure prescription designed to delay circadian phase. The advance group received two morning hours of short-wavelength (blue) light (λmax ≈ 476±1 nm, full-width-half-maximum ≈20 nm) exposure and three evening hours of light restriction (orange-filtered light, λ<525 nm=0). The delay group received blue light for three hours in the evening and light restriction for two hours in the morning. Participants led their normal lives while wearing a calibrated wrist-worn light exposure and activity monitor.

Results

After seven days on the 90-minute advanced sleep schedule, circadian phase advanced 132±19 minutes for the advance group and delayed 59±7.5 minutes for the delay group.

Conclusions

Controlling the light-dark exposure pattern shifts circadian phase in the expected direction irrespective of the fixed advanced sleep schedule.

SUBMITTER: Appleman K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4304650 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Controlling light-dark exposure patterns rather than sleep schedules determines circadian phase.

Appleman Kenneth K Figueiro Mariana G MG Rea Mark S MS

Sleep medicine 20130306 5

<h4>Objective</h4>To examine, in a field study circadian phase changes associated with two different light-dark exposures patterns, one that was congruent with a phase advanced sleep schedule and one that was incongruent with an advanced schedule.<h4>Methods</h4>Twenty-one adults (mean age±standard deviation=22.5±3.9 years; 11 women) participated in the 12day study. After a five-day baseline period, participants were all given individualized, fixed, 90-minute advanced sleep schedules for one wee ...[more]

PMID: 23481485

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Project description:The circadian rhythm, called Process C, regulates a wide range of biological processes in humans including sleep, metabolism, body temperature, and hormone secretion. Light is the dominant synchronizer of the circadian rhythm-it has been used to regulate the circadian phase to cope with jet-lag, shift work, and sleep disorder. The homeostatic oscillation of the sleep drive is called Process S. Process C and Process S together determine the sleep-wake cycle in what is known as the two-process model. This paper addresses the regulation of both Process C and Process S by scheduling light exposure and sleep based on numerical simulations of circadian rhythm and sleep mathematical models. This is a significant step beyond the existing literature that only considers the entrainment of Process C. Regulation of the two-process model poses several unique features and challenges: 1. Process S is non-smooth, i.e., the homeostatic dynamics are different in the sleep and wake regimes; 2. Light only indirectly affects Process S through Process C; 3. Light does not affect Process C during sleep. We consider two scenarios: optimizing light intensity as the control input with spontaneous (i.e., unscheduled) sleep/wake times and jointly optimizing the light intensity and the sleep/wake times, which allows limited delayed sleep and early waking as part of the decision variables. We solve the time-optimal entrainment problem for the two-process model for both scenarios using an extension of the gradient descent algorithm to non-smooth systems. To illustrate the efficacy of our time-optimal entrainment strategies, we consider two common use cases: transmeridian travelers and shift workers. For transmeridian travelers, joint optimization of the two-process model avoids the unrealistic long wake duration when only Process C is considered. The entrainment time also decreases when both the light input and the sleep schedule are optimized compared to when only the light input is optimized. For shift workers, we show that the entrainment time is significantly shortened by optimizing the night shift working light.

Project description:BACKGROUND. In humans, a single light exposure of 12 minutes and multiple-millisecond light exposures can shift the phase of the circadian pacemaker. We investigated the response of the human circadian pacemaker to a single 15-second or 2-minute light pulse administered during the biological night. METHODS. Twenty-six healthy individuals participated in a 9-day inpatient protocol that included assessment of dim light melatonin onset time (DLMO time) before and after exposure to a single 15-second (n = 8) or 2-minute (n = 12) pulse of bright light (9,500 lux; 4,100 K fluorescent) or control background dim light (<3 lux; n = 6). Phase shifts were calculated as the difference in clock time between the two phase estimates. RESULTS. Both 15-second and 2-minute exposures induced phase delay shifts [median (± SD)] of -34.8 ± 47.2 minutes and -45.4 ± 28.4 minutes, respectively, that were significantly (P = 0.04) greater than the control condition (advance shift: +22.3 ± 51.3 minutes) but were not significantly different from each other. Comparisons with historic data collected under the same conditions confirmed a nonlinear relationship between exposure duration and the magnitude of phase shift. CONCLUSIONS. Our results underscore the exquisite sensitivity of the human pacemaker to even short-duration single exposures to light. These findings may have real-world implications for circadian disruption induced by exposure to brief light stimuli at night. TRIAL REGISTRATION. The study was registered as a clinical trial on www.clinicaltrials.org, NCT #01330992. FUNDING. Funding for this study was provided by NSBRI HFP02802 and NIH P01-AG09975, R01-HL114088 (EBK), RC2-HL101340-0 (EBK, SWL, SAR, REK), K02-HD045459 (EBK), K24-HL105664 (EBK), T32-HL07901 (MSH, SAR), HL094654 (CAC), and AG044416 (JFD). The project described was supported by NIH grant 1UL1 TR001102-01, 8UL1TR000170-05, UL1 RR 025758, Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science.

Dataset Information

Controlling light-dark exposure patterns rather than sleep schedules determines circadian phase.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Controlling light-dark exposure patterns rather than sleep schedules determines circadian phase.

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