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Blue Lights To Reset Internal Clocks
holy_calamity writes "Researchers at RPI are testing the effects of putting blue LEDs inside cars to keep drivers alert. People driving through the night are much more likely to cause accidents because our circadian rhythms just want to sleep — blue light at around 450nm wavelength can fool them into thinking it's morning and keep them awake."
.. there really is justification for people pimpin' their rides????
I'm rarely awake before 2pm, you insensitive clod!
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Yes, I know there are times that we've all had to drive with less sleep than we should have... but is this a good answer?
To me it would seem to inspire false confidence on the part of the driver, where they might think that they could stay up and not have to worry about falling asleep driving since they had their blue lights blinking or whatever.
I'm thinking that the real solution is making people in the public more aware of the dangers of driving with too little sleep. Everyone knows they shouldn't drink and drive (yet many still do) but not enough people realize how dangerous driving when tired is.
Most of all, i hope they don't put these in 18-wheelers are another way to squeeze yet more driving time out of the guys.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
For me, when I start to see the blue light is when I normally GO to sleep.
Interesting. VW uses this wavelength for its gauge lighting in most of its cars. I always thought it was for looks (as the red/blue combo does look pretty good). Perhaps the blue was chosen to help enhance nighttime alertness as well.
i am a soviet space shuttle
"blue light at around 450nm wavelength can fool them into thinking its morning and keep us awake"
I need to install one of these on top of my monitor!
Q: How many New Yorkers does it take to screw in a "blue" light bulb?
A: None 'o yo' fuckin' business!
Q: How many software people does it take to screw in a "blue" light bulb?
A: None. That's a hardware problem.
Q: How many televangelists does it take to screw in a "blue" light bulb?
A: None. Televangelists screw in motels.
Q: How many straight San Franciscans does it take to screw in a "blue" light bulb?
A: Both of them.
Considering that vastly less people are on the road at night, it's disproportionate.
That's like doping in sports: you don't realize you're destroying your body, and after prolonged use you end up in a wheelchair. I wouldn't be surprised to see the number of nightly accidents go up in the long run when the blue lights are introduced.
-- Cheers!
How soon until they can put this in textbooks? Now that would be handy...
I find a flashing blue light in the rear view mirror certainly wakes me up.
Seriously though, it would be better to just not drive when tired. Also wouldn't screwing around with your internal body clock mess you up more?
I'm not going to discount the possible correlation between certain wavelengths and sensing it's daylight. But it sounds problematic to me. One blue LED has amazing illumination power, so not only will it likely affect your night vision but it will illuminate all the flaws in your windscreen, as well as enhance the reflection of your self.
Those of us unfortunate enough to buy hardware with blue leds on it can share this fact, it's damned annoying.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
How many Slashdotters does it take to change a light bulb?
Blue lights are more likely to wake you up not because you think it's morning, but because you think the police are chasing you. One time I was driving, and for some reason was paranoid that there was a cop around the corner and I came across a house covered with blue Christmas lights. That woke me up.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Same here, red lights dont keep me awake, neither do blue lights on their own. However I've always found that turning on a flashing red and blue light behind me will instantly make me awake and fully alert,no matter what. The effect is amazing :)
The only problem is that blue light ruins your night vision, which would conceivably cause more accidents.
Speaking of sleeping and car jokes, this old chestnut comes to mind.
When I die, I want to go peacefully, in my sleep, like my grandfather.
Not screaming in terror like his passengers.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Blue wavelengths also have the nasty side effect of destroying night vision almost instantly, fooling the pupils to contract - likely for the very same reason it fools the rest of the body into thinking its daylight too.
Not a desirable or safe side effect when making something specifically intended to be used for driving in the dark. It's why the military uses red lights in their vehicle cabins and cockpits.
Perhaps a good way to force product turnover. Of course, it is probably limit your drivers.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
At last, a foolproof way to stay awake during lectures.
Yes we are. Some of us don't think clearly until after the sun has been down a few hours. Some of us have been that way since we were six despite the fact that we were raised by dads who kept us on a military time clock--and it didn't make one damn bit of difference, because we could invert the clock in one day by staying up until morning.
I have a theory: morning people have a 22 hour internal clock. I have a 28 hour internal clock. When I was a kid, I used to think it was "insomnia", but its not, because insomnia means that you can't sleep. I can sleep just dandy--about 20 hours after I get up. If I get six full hours, I'm wired like a jack russell terrier for a long long time. So I have to live about 6 days out of the week dead tired (4-5 hours of sleep) so that I have any hope of getting those 4 or 5 hours. One day of 6-7 and I need to be up 20 hours to compensate. My clock gets advanced two or three hours sleeping (god forbid) 8, and I spend the week working it back. Friends, this is not fun. Its also not choice, because if I could trade my 28 hour clock for a 22 hour clock (like my wife has) I would in a heartbeat. I'd use those other 2 hours for sleep. 10 hours of sleep per day--that would rule.
If you study sleep--dig yourself into that theory above. You have some big papers coming your way, I guarantee you.
Only when I got to be an adult did I realize that morning people aren't "faking it". Get this: they are really rather happy its morning! All that "good morning" stuff--its sincere to them. And you have to lie and say "good morning" right back to them or they won't understand you.
Also, when I used to drive 17 hours straight (which I've done more than a few times) I couldn't wait for it to turn night so it wouldn't be so hard to stay up. Dylight is hell when a true night person wants to stay awake. If a blue light simulates that and intrudes on my precious darkness, I don't want any part of it.
Just callin' it like I see it.
Brilliant! Quite an illuminating journal entry you have there. Thanks for shedding some light on it!
I, for one, am looking forward to the inevitable
Light, in general, suppresses the production of melatonin by the retina, and melatonin plays a role in maintaining circadian rhythms. Higher levels of melatonin make you more sleepy, which is why melatonin is sold OTC as a sleep aid.
One of the treatments for some sleep disorders is called "light therapy", and involves having a fairly bright light in view for about an hour after you wake up. This inhibits melatonin production and resets the circadian cycle to keep that as your wake-up time (which also places your go-to-sleep time at an appropriate time of day). Recent studies indicate that the suppression of melatonin production peaks around 450nm, so a blue light around that wavelength is far more effective per lumen than broad-spectrum light.
So, if you're a person who does a lot of night driving (you work the night shift, you drive trucks at night, etc.), this is great for you, because you can get by with a much dimmer light, perhaps even one in the vehicle while you're driving. If you just need this for one or two nights, you're a bit likely to give yourself jet lag by screwing up your sleep schedule.
lots of people are actually faking it at night from what I understand, especially women.
When I travel by plane, I never get any sleep. Kids yelling, flight attendants interrupting me.
But, when I'm driving myself, I can fall asleep no problem. Get some of my best shuteye when I'm behind the wheel.......
== First cross river, then insult alligator.
My dash is blue. My stereo is blue. The blue lights, they do nothing.
"Check! I can keep going all night folks."
Make Sure you get some blue lights to keep you going all night....
**Life is too short to be serious**
To me blue lights say, "Attention K-mart shoppers!"
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Mussolini
This changes w/age. People in their fifties have usually an internal clock of some 24 hrs. Some can have even 30 hours or more at their twenties. Old people can have internal clocks of 19-20 hrs, which is why they tend to get tired early in the evening and then start waking up in the very early morning hours.
Some of us don't think clearly until after the sun has been down a few hours. Some of us have been that way since we were six despite the fact that we were raised by dads who kept us on a military time clock--and it didn't make one damn bit of difference, because we could invert the clock in one day by staying up until morning.In my case I don't think it's really about my internal clock, as you could really time your clock by me when I was a baby, regarding both sleeping and eating. My folks made me get up at 07:00 every morning in the week for the 17 years I lived w/them. Now I'm soon 34, and I have a day off from work, and I woke up at 13:48. Any why ?
Because it was supposedly so important to watch a few more videos from Beyond Belief 2.0. I went to bed at 05:30 (am), just because I was so darn stubborn to keep on watching the videos about a subject that I found highly interesting. I actually played solitaire for the last few hours just to keep myself active so that I don't get too sleepy.
My theory is that at least some of the so-called night people are just like me: They're too intensive, too driven and too interested in things to let go of the day - it's like every day you go to bed it's a little death. And don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to get there when you're really tired, but the thing is that I still don't want to go to bed at night. I can say that to me going to bed feels like a punishment every and each day, and I drag it off for as long as I just can. If I didn't do this, I'd probably be more effective many days, because I would've slept as much as I really needed, had I gone to bed in good time.
I have a friend who has an intensively driven personality just like me, and he tends to do just the same things - stay awake just for the sake of it, like I guess we did when we were children. It was just so much fun to be able to stay up after your bedtime. Maybe this is in part is an effect of how we're brought up. Some Freudian would surely conclude that I want to stay up every night just to defy my parents who always put me to bed when I was a child.
Only when I got to be an adult did I realize that morning people aren't "faking it". Get this: they are really rather happy its morning! All that "good morning" stuff--its sincere to them. And you have to lie and say "good morning" right back to them or they won't understand you. Well, if I wasn't always tired in the morning w/having to get to work, maybe I'd feel better about mornings, too. As it is, I pay the price for not going to bed in time especially in the mornings.The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne
I thought that we had hit the pits with Toyota's MAINT REQUIRED flashing LED on the dashboard. It undoubtedly was the dumbest piece of instrumentation I had ever seen. Let me explain -- The flashing of this led has nothing to do with the mechanical state of the car. Nope, no instrumentation connected to that LED except a timer. Reset it buy pressing a few buttons here and there and you dont need MAINT ! Then it got worse. BMW comes up with a even lousier idea -- If your car changes lanes, and you dont have the blinker on, the steering wheel vibrates ! And now this. In all honesty, the mind bleeds.
Guys, if you want to _really_ make better cars give us more muscle, smoother gearboxes, better crash safety and mileage. Also, do not cover up lack of innovation with eye-candy. Please leave the driving to the customer.
Maybe it's just because I'm Canadian, but to me, blue light means snow removal. Either that, or crappy beer.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
My wife has this exact same problem. She was determined to solve it and first tried 'free-running sleep' where she stayed awake until she was tired then slept until she felt refreshed. This resulted in her sometimes being awake all night and gradually lapping herself. I think it worked out to a 28 hour day for her.
That method allowed her to feel refreshed, awake, and productive, but it doesn't work well in our culture. After some research she ordered glasses from www.lowbluelights.com. We also ordered black-out curtains for every window in our apartment and sealed them every night so that when they are shut it is so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your face. The glasses (which filter out blue light and allow your body to ramp up melatonin production if you put them on 2-3 hours before bed) actually helped, when she could wear them perfectly, but the slightest slip-up and the effect would be lost.
Next we tried using candles only for 3 hours before bed. This worked fantastically well. In fact, I would recommend trying it for a week (be sure to use black out curtains and get rid or completely cover *every* LED, or light source in your house (it will take a lot, you will be surprised). Both of us (and I never thought I had a problem), would become irresistibly drowsy after 2-3 hours of the candle light and would find ourselves waking about 10min before dawn after a two weeks of this method. It was an amazing insight into how different the modern world forces us to be from how we clearly are meant to operate. In addition, we were finally on the exact same sleep schedule, which if you have every had a different sleep schedule then your spouse you will know it can be a source of frustration.
The candles were not without serious drawbacks. After a few months they turned the ceilings of our apartment a light gray color from soot, it was hard to not be able to read at night very well, and we were concerned about the fire hazard and the cost. Finally, we tried amber compact florescent light for every room as well as an amber screen cover for the computer monitor. This works well, not as good as the candle light, but much better then before we started using it. It used to be that both of us loved having every lamp turned on with the brightest bulb we could get until right before bed. Now neither of us can stand bright lights at night, it is like our bodies start to crave darkness when it comes time for it. This is the method we have used for the past 1-1/2 years, and it has brought a lot of normalcy to my wife's sleeping.
Our next plan is to try and get some red lights to mix with the amber lights in the hope that it will allow us to get the full effect of candle light again. It is awesome to wake up fully refreshed right before dawn, and to fall asleep as soon as you head hits the pillow at night.
--- There are two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it
I have noticed that most people, myself included, cannot focus their vision on "deep blue" (sapphire blue) glowing signs at night, those remain "fuzzy" no matter how hard you concentrate.
That's mainly because the layout of the eye's cones (the color receptors) is a sparse hexagonal array of blue sensors filled in with a randomly-blotchy sea of red and green sensors. The blue image is lower resolution than the red, green, or black-and-white. (I'm not sure if there's also an issue with chromatic aberration causing the focus to be less accurate in blue. But that would be appropriate given the sensor layout.)
Some older taillight designs take advantage of this to produce a distance cue at ranges far beyond binocular vision usability: They have a blue jewel in the midst of the red lens. When the car is close you see red with a blue dot. When it's farther away the blue "leaks" out due to the lower resolution and the whole taillight appears purple. Still farther and the blue leaks beyond the red, producing a purple taillight with a blue aura. Result: You can keep track of the car at all distances but see red only when the car is close enough to be an immediate hazard.
Unfortunately government regulations now penalize showing colors other than red to the rear.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way