Waking up Teens!

Reported February 2006

TROY, N.Y. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Teenagers are notorious for staying up late, hitting the snooze button and always running late. Now, however, new research shows they can adjust to a schedule simply by sitting in front of a light.

Erin Chesky knows just how hard it is to get up because she battled getting to sleep. "I would just stare at the ceiling, and then I would have to wake up at 5:30 or 5 o'clock to go to school, and I would be tired," she says.

The 16-year-old was diagnosed with delayed sleep phase syndrome. That means Erin's internal clock didn't match what was her alarm clock was saying.

Mariana Figueiro, Ph.D., from the Lighting Research Center at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., says, "When your watch says it's 7 o'clock in the morning, you want your internal clock to also say it is 7 o'clock in the morning."

Lighting scientists have found a quick fix to the internal and external alarm clock miscommunication -- a blue light. "If you apply the light after your minimum core body temperature, you're going to advance the clock so you're going to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier the next cycle," Figueiro says. The minimum core body temperature is reached about two hours before a person naturally wakes up.

"When you get the teenager up, outdoors, waiting for the school bus at 7 o'clock in the morning, they may be getting light at the wrong phase," Figueiro tells Ivanhoe. This exposes teens to natural blue light too early. By wearing the goggles when teens wake up, blue light is blocked out. Then, later in the morning -- after their minimum core body temperature is reached -- teens can reset their internal clocks by being out in the light.

Blue light exposure worked quickly for Erin. She's now able to fall asleep by 10:30.

An easy way schools can help is by giving students a quick mid-morning break to go outside or put blue LEDs around computer screens in classrooms. By getting enough blue light at the right time, sleep patterns can not only be changed in teens, but also in the elderly and shift workers.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Lighting Research Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
21 Union St.
Troy, NY 12180 USA
(518) 687-7100
http://www.lrc.rpi.edu
cimom@rpi.edu

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