Photic Resetting in Night-Shift Work: Impact on Nurses' Sleep

📖 Top 30% JournalMay 25, 2012Chronobiology international

How light affects sleep adjustment in night-shift nurses

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Abstract

Workers in the treatment group had daytime sleep episodes lasting 7.1 ± 0.1 hours, compared to 6.6 ± 0.2 hours for the control group.

Intermittent exposure to full-spectrum bright light during night shifts may improve daytime sleep duration for night-shift workers.
Using dark goggles during the morning commute could help maintain the sleep/darkness schedule.
The treatment group experienced a larger proportion of melatonin secretion during their daytime sleep.
Reestablishing a phase angle similar to that of day-oriented schedules may favor longer daytime sleep episodes.

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The objective of this study was to quantify daytime sleep in night-shift workers with and without an intervention designed to recover the normal relationship between the endogenous circadian pacemaker and the sleep/wake cycle. Workers of the treatment group received intermittent exposure to full-spectrum bright light during night shifts and wore dark goggles during the morning commute home. All workers maintained stable 8-h daytime sleep/darkness schedules. The authors found that workers of the treatment group had daytime sleep episodes that lasted 7.1 ± .1 h (mean ± SEM) versus 6.6 ± .2 h for workers in the control group (p = .04). The increase in total sleep time co-occurred with a larger proportion of the melatonin secretory episode during daytime sleep in workers of the treatment group. The results of this study showed reestablishment of a phase angle that is comparable to that observed on a day-oriented schedule favors longer daytime sleep episodes in night-shift workers. (Author correspondence: diane.boivin@douglas.mcgill.ca ).

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