If you’re feeling tired and lethargic in the day during these long winter months, switch on a blue light: it’ll make you more awake and alert, say researchers.
Working under a blue light for six hours a day will make you more alert, improve your reaction times and generally make you feel less sleepy. Researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital say the changes can also be seen in the brain, with monitors picking up activity that relates to a more alert state.
Short wavelength, or blue, light makes people alert at night and can interfere with sleep patterns-but it works equally as well during the daytime when people want to be more awake.
To test the theory, the researchers monitored 16 volunteers as they worked for more than six hours a day under blue light, and then compared the results when they were exposed to green light.
Blue light bulbs are commercially available at lighting outlets.
(Source: Sleep, 2014; doi: 10.5665/sleep.3396)
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