Cleary-Gaffney, Michael (2022) The dark side of artificial light: Examining the perception and intensity of light at night in the sleeping environment and its association with sleep, circadian rhythmicity, attention bias and psychological health. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
Due to technological advances and affordability exposure to Light-at-night (LAN) is
now ubiquitous both inside our private dwellings and our external environment.
While LAN provides us with the agency to extend our biological day into the
evening this may lead to adverse consequences for circadian rhythmicity and the
timing of sleep. Additionally, LAN exposure may lead to adverse health
consequences either indirectly via circadian disruption or directly impacting on
health. Technological advances in both the accessibility and quality of lighting have
outpaced our understanding of the impacts of LAN on sleep and health. The
association between home-setting LAN with sleep and psychological health is
unclear. This study specifically examines LAN exposure in the sleeping environment
and its association with sleep and psychological health. Using both cross-sectional
and ecological study designs this research seeks to examine what are the perceived
sources and intensity of LAN which individuals are exposed to in their sleeping
environment. What is the association between these sources with sleep timing,
circadian misalignment and psychological health.
Our research indicates that LAN is perceived from a variety of sources in the
sleeping environment. Those that perceive LAN are more likely to report that these
sources are disruptive to their sleep. We report for the first time that the subjective
perception of external LAN is associated with both poor sleep quality and
psychological health. Due to limitations of satellite image data we employed a novel
approach to objectively measure external light pollution individualized to the
dwelling of the participant. We report no association between the subjective
perception of LAN and objective measurements. This research examined whether the
association between the subjective perception of LAN and poor sleep quality despite
equally comparable levels of outdoor LAN to those that do not perceive it was due to
an attention bias towards sleep related information. Our results report no significant
effect of the perception of LAN in the sleeping environment with attention bias
towards sleep-related word stimuli or towards images depicting LAN sleep
environments. Finally, this study examined whether objectively measured LAN
intensity measured from the window and bedside was associated with alterations to
sleep timing, sleep quality and rest-activity patterns derived from actigraphy. Our
results report that window LAN intensity is associated with delayed timing of L5 and
sleep onset. However, bedside LAN is not associated with any alterations to our
outcome variables. Our research also highlights that increased LAN intensity is not
associated variance in sleep timing, quality, daily mood or daily subjective
sleepiness.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Keywords: | dark side; artificial light; perception and intensity; light at night; sleeping environment; sleep; circadian rhythmicity; attention bias; psychological health; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology |
Item ID: | 16543 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 20 Sep 2022 13:24 |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/16543 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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