Trial reportSleep2013
Direct effects of light on alertness, vigilance, and the waking electroencephalogram in humans depend on prior light history.
Trial report in Sleep, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 133 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Light on Attention and Reaction Time: A Systematic Review.Journal of research in health sciences · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of the amount and timing of light in association with objective and subjective sleep outcomes in community-dwelling adults.Sleep health · 2019Pooled it
- Workplace lighting for improving alertness and mood in daytime workers.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Early evening light mitigates sleep compromising physiological and alerting responses to subsequent late evening light.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Light correlated color temperature and task switching performance in preschool-age children: Preliminary insights.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Smart Lighting and Mindfulness Interventions: Pathways to Better Health and Learning in High School Education.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- From Sunlight to Screens: Modeling When Light Exposure Matters Most for Sleep and Circadian Health.Clocks & sleep · 2026Article
- Physiologically-relevant light exposure and light behaviour in Switzerland and Malaysia.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Observational
- Afternoon to early evening bright light exposure reduces later melatonin production in adolescents.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2025Article
- Towards an evidence-based integrative lighting score: a proposed multi-level approach.Annals of medicine · 2024Review
- Behavioural determinants of physiologically-relevant light exposure.Communications psychology · 2024Review
- Light-Modulated Circadian Synaptic Plasticity in the Somatosensory Cortex: Link to Locomotor Activity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- An Investigation into the Effects of Correlated Color Temperature and Illuminance of Urban Motor Vehicle Road Lighting on Driver Alertness.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Effects of calibrated blue-yellow changes in light on the human circadian clock.Nature human behaviour · 2024Article
- Entrainment to gradual vs. immediate 8-hour phase advance shifts with and without short-wavelength enriched polychromatic green light.Sleep health · 2024Article
- Article
- Effects of Blue Light on Puberty and Ovary in Female RatsJournal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology · 2023Article
- Seasonal Variation in the Responsiveness of the Melanopsin System to Evening Light: Why We Should Report Season When Collecting Data in Human Sleep and Circadian Studies.Clocks & sleep · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesLight can induce an acute alerting response in humans; however, it is unknown whether the magnitude of this response is simply a function of the absolute illuminance of the light itself, or whether it depends on illuminance history preceding the stimulus. Here, we compared the effects of illuminance history on the alerting response to a subsequent light stimulus.
designA randomized, crossover design was used to compare the effect of two illuminance histories (1 lux vs. 90 lux) on the alerting response to a 6.5-h 90-lux light stimulus during the biological night.
settingIntensive Physiologic Monitoring Unit, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
participantsFourteen healthy young adults (6 F; 23.5 ± 2.9 years).
interventionsParticipants were administered two 6.5-h light exposures (LE) of 90 lux during the biological night. For 3 days prior to each LE, participants were exposed to either 1 lux or 90 lux during the wake episode. MEASUREMENTS AND
resultsThe alerting response to light was assessed using subjective sleepiness ratings, lapses of attention, and reaction times as measured with an auditory psychomotor vigilance task, as well as power density in the delta/theta range of the waking EEG. The alerting response to light was greater and lasted longer when the LE followed exposure to 1 lux compared to 90 lux light.
conclusionThe magnitude and duration of the alerting effect of light at night depends on the illuminance history and appears to be subject to sensitization and adaptation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.