Stanford University Study Reveals Effect of Flash Exposure on Alertness

According to a research abstract presented at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC, exposure to bright light flashes improves nighttime alertness. The experimental results showed that after participants were exposed to a two-millisecond bright light pulse every minute during one hour duration, sleepiness decreased and alertness at nighttime increased.

Jamie M. Zeitzer, PhD, assistant professor of Stanford University, stated that the changes in brain wave activity and alertness after light exposure astounded the Stanford University researchers. These results will change the way humans think about brain’s response to light.

According to AASM practice parameters, light exposure at timed intervals in the work place betters alertness and reduces sleepiness during night shifts. Seven persons were tested twice in the randomized crossover study. The test sessions were divided by over two weeks. In each session, people were wakened 2 hrs after the stimulus administration’s normal bedtime. The persons were exposed to 120 ms of bright light pulses for one hour of darkness. The vigilance was measured prior to and after the stimulus of 60 min.