|
 To test the effect of light therapy on driving, researchers did a
series of three experiments with 19 adults. In two scenarios,
participants spent a night being sleep-deprived in a lab and then
spent 45 minutes in dim or bright light before a driving test. For a
third test, people got a good nights' sleep at home and then went to
the lab for 45 minutes of bright light exposure before a driving
test.
After sleep deprivation in the lab, five people exposed to dim light
therapy got in car accidents during the driving simulations. None of
the people who slept at home crashed, and neither did any of the
sleep-deprived people who got bright light therapy before getting
behind the wheel, the study found.
"We experience severe sleepiness toward the end of the night shift,
and this may overlap with our commute time," said senior study
author Dr. Ralph Mistlberger of Simon Fraser University in British
Columbia, Canada.
"Sleep deprivation makes this worse of course, and together with the
clock, this conspires to impair our ability to sustain attention to
task (e.g., driving), and avoid distraction, and react quickly to
external stimuli like traffic lights, brake lights in front of you,
road signs, etc," Mistlberger added by email.
"Bright light is alerting," Mistlberger said.
Sleepiness is a leading risk factor for automobile accidents because
it can make drivers less vigilant, slow reaction times and dull
cognitive abilities, researchers note in Sleep Medicine.
Shift workers with chronic sleep deprivation also face an increased
risk of accidents. Strategies like drinking coffee or soda, napping
before a drive or blasting music or rolling down the windows in the
car may help increase alertness behind the wheel, but none of these
strategies is fool-proof.
For the current study, researchers wanted to see if bright light
might help reduce driving impairments related to sleep deprivation.
They found participants had lower body temperatures after spending a
sleep-deprived night in the lab, as well as longer reaction times
and increased sleepiness.
Exposure to bright light didn't appear to improve reaction times or
sleepiness. But light was associated with better driving.
Beyond its small size, other limitations of the study include the
reliance on lab conditions for sleep deprivation and light exposure,
which may not match what shift workers would experience on the job,
the authors note.
[to top of second column] |
"There is evidence that the use of bright light at the office (or
even at home directly prior to beginning the work shift) may be
beneficial in preventing sleep deprivation-related motor vehicle
collisions," said Russell Griffin, a researcher at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham who wasn't involved in the study.
"That said, there is not enough evidence to date to fully suggest
the use of bright light therapy to avoid collision," Griffin added
by email.
The proven way to avoid the effects of sleepiness on the road is to
consistently get enough sleep, said Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston, a
researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia who wasn't involved in the study.
"Drowsy driving is perhaps the most under-recognized cause of
serious crashes and sadly, the evidence is not there on how to
counter it," Winston said by email.
More research is needed on the potential of bright light therapy to
make exhausted drivers safer, said Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a
researcher at the University of Toronto who wasn't involved in the
study.
But there are still things drivers can do now to stay safer on the
road.
"Safety strategies while driving can include minimizing
distractions, stopping at stop signs, respecting speed limits,
yielding right-of-way, buckling a seatbelt, signaling all turns and
not driving after drinking alcohol," Redelmeier said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2ghLalo Sleep Medicine, online November 16,
2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
