Journal Article

Bright environmental light improves the sleepiness of nightshift ICU nurses

Griepentrog, John E., Labiner, Hanna E., Rosengart, Matthew R., Gunn, Scott R.

2018

Overview

Background Shift work can disturb circadian homeostasis and result in fatigue, excessive sleepiness, and reduced quality of life. Light therapy has been shown to impart positive effects in night shift workers. We sought to determine whether or not prolonged exposure to bright light during a night shift reduces sleepiness and enhances psychomotor performance among ICU nurses. Methods This is a single-center randomized, crossover clinical trial at a surgical trauma ICU. ICU nurses working a night shift were exposed to a 10-h period of high illuminance (1500–2000 lx) white light compared to standard ambient fluorescent lighting of the hospital. They then completed the Stanford Sleepiness Scale and the Psychomotor Vigilance Test. The primary and secondary endpoints were analyzed using the paired t test. A p  value <0.05 was considered significant. Results A total of 43 matched pairs completed both lighting exposures and were analyzed. When exposed to high illuminance lighting subjects experienced reduced sleepiness scores on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale than when exposed to standard hospital lighting: mean (sem) 2.6 (0.2) vs. 3.0 (0.2), p  = 0.03. However, they committed more psychomotor errors: 2.3 (0.2) vs. 1.7 (0.2), p  = 0.03. Conclusions A bright lighting environment for ICU nurses working the night shift reduces sleepiness but increases the number of psychomotor errors. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03331822 . Retrospectively registered on 6 November 2017.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adult / Biology / Brightness (Photometry) / Circadian / Circadian Rhythm / Circadian rhythms / Clinical trials / Critical care / Critical Care Medicine / Critical Care Nursing - methods / Emergency Medicine / Environment Design - standards / Environment Design - statistics & numerical data / Environmental aspects / Fatigue - complications / Fatigue - prevention & control / Fatigue - psychology / Female / Fluorescent lighting / Health aspects / Hospitals / Human performance / Humans / Hypotheses / Insomnia / Institutional lighting / Intensive / Intensive care nursing / Intensive Care Units - organization & administration / Intensive Care Units - standards / Intensive Care Units - statistics & numerical data / Intervention / Light / Light therapy / Lighting - standards / Lighting - statistics & numerical data / Male / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Melatonin / Middle Aged / Night shift / Night work / Nurse / Nurses / Nursing / Physiological aspects / Psychometrics - instrumentation / Psychometrics - methods / Psychomotor performance / Shift work / Shift Work Schedule - psychology / Shift Work Schedule - statistics & numerical data / Shift work sleep disorder / Sleep / Sleep Disorders, Circadian Rhythm - psychology / Sleep Disorders, Circadian Rhythm - therapy / Sleepiness / Work stations