Blue glasses for a good night's sleep
25 April 2003
Adelaide researchers have designed special glasses that can treat sleep problems by shining blue light directly into the wearer's eyes.
The Flinders University researchers say the glasses can be used to treat jet lag, disrupted sleep from shift work, seasonal affective disorder (a syndrome where episodes of depression tend to occur during the winter months) and insomnia.
The glasses work in the same way as bright light therapy and use sky-blue coloured light-emitting diodes to produce the blue light.
Testing has shown blue light is the best colour for resetting an out-of-time body clock, the cause of problems like jet lag.
Associate Professor Leon Lack, co-inventor of the glasses, said people can recover from jet lag more quickly by getting out into sunlight because sunlight re-times the body clock, but if this isn't possible, wearing the glasses after a long-haul flight will produce a similar effect.
In the case of night-shift work, bright light stimulation from 12 am to 4 am can delay the body clock up to 6 hours, moving the sleepy period to the middle of the day.
For people who have trouble falling asleep, treatment with bright light from 7 am to 9 am is helpful, Profesoor Lack said. For people who wake early, bright light stimulation in the evening delays awakening and increases sleep time.
The glasses operate on a 9 volt battery and are expected to retail between $100 and $200.
Last Reviewed: 23 April 2003
- 1. Medical Observer Weekly 25/4/03
