The Effect of Blue-enriched White Light on Cognitive Performances and Sleepiness of Simulated Shift Workers: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND Shift work is associated with reduced performance and effciency, the current study aimed at investigated whether blue-enriched white light could improve workers' performance. METHODS The study, which adopted a randomized controlled trial, was conducted among 48 simulated shift workers. The participants performed sustained attention task, working memory task, and sleepiness task during night shift work. The data was analyzed using two-way repeated measure ANOVA. RESULTS The results indicated that, compared to conventional light, participants' correct responses of the sustained attention significantly increased when they were exposed to blue-enriched white light, correspondingly, the commission errors and omission errors declined. Furthermore, the blue-enriched white light had a significant effect on the decrease of sleepiness. However, the working memory were not significantly affected. CONCLUSION Exposing to blue-enriched white light can improve sustained attention and reduce sleepiness.