Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Distinction Paper

Degree Name

Allied Health-BS

Department

Health & Sport Sciences

Advisor

Ashley Simons, PT, DPT, Ph.D

First Committee Member

Shelley Payne, DHS, PT, AT

Keywords

Blue Light, Sleep, Glasses, Lenses, Placebo, Circadian Rhythm

Subject Categories

Higher Education | Medical Education | Ophthalmology | Quality Improvement

Abstract

This study investigated the effects blue light from self-luminous devices has on adult sleeping patterns. We investigated sleep quality and duration qualitatively with a randomized, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled design with a wash-out period. Participants wore blue light blocking lenses or placebo lenses whenever they were using a self-luminous device throughout each day for one week. Each morning, participants filled out a survey to report their number of hours slept, time to fall asleep, and amount of time spent on self-luminous devices. Participants took the Pittsburgh Insomnia Rating Scale (PIRS) at the end of the one week trial (See Appendix A). Among the nine participants that completed both trials, mean PIRS scores for the blue light-blocking lenses were 25 (SD= 12.10) and 39.25 (SD= 19.96) for the Placebo lenses. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test indicated that the mean rank of the PIRS survey was statistically significant when comparing the trial with the blue light lenses and the placebo lenses (mean rank= 4), z= -2.37, p=0.02. These results are not enough to prove validity due to the low number of participants and future research would be needed.

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