Medical Chronobiology Program, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 27;7(1):14215. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13973-1.
Artificial light endows a "round-the-clock", 24-h/7-d society. Chronic exposure to light at night contributes to health hazards for humans, including disorders of sleep. Yet the influence of inter-individual traits, such as sex-differences, on light sensitivity remains to be established. Here we investigated potential sex-differences to evening light exposure of 40 lx at 6500 K (blue-enriched) or at 2500 K (non-blue-enriched), and their impact on brightness perception, vigilant attention and sleep physiology. In contrast to women, men had higher brightness perception and faster reaction times in a sustained attention task during blue-enriched light than non-blue-enriched. After blue-enriched light exposure, men had significantly higher all-night frontal NREM sleep slow-wave activity (SWA: 2-4 Hz), than women, particularly during the beginning of the sleep episode. Furthermore, brightness perception during blue-enriched light significantly predicted men's improved sustained attention performance and increased frontal NREM SWA. Our data indicate that, in contrast to women, men show a stronger response to blue-enriched light in the late evening even at very low light levels (40lux), as indexed by increased vigilant attention and sleep EEG hallmarks. Collectively, the data indicate that sex differences in light sensitivity might play a key role for ensuring the success of individually-targeted light interventions.
人造光赋予了人类一个“全天候”、24 小时/7 天的社会。夜间持续暴露在光照下会对人类健康造成危害，包括睡眠障碍。然而，个体特征（如性别差异）对光敏感性的影响仍有待确定。在这里，我们研究了在 6500 K（富含蓝光）或 2500 K（非富含蓝光）的 40 lx 夜间光暴露下，可能存在的性别差异及其对亮度感知、警觉性注意力和睡眠生理的影响。与女性相比，男性在富含蓝光的环境中的持续注意力任务中，具有更高的亮度感知和更快的反应时间，而非富含蓝光环境下则相反。在富含蓝光的光暴露后，男性的整夜额部非快速眼动睡眠慢波活动（SWA：2-4 Hz）明显高于女性，尤其是在睡眠开始时。此外，在富含蓝光的光下的亮度感知，显著预测了男性的持续注意力表现的改善和额部非快速眼动睡眠 SWA 的增加。我们的数据表明，与女性相比，男性在即使在非常低的光水平（40lux）下，在傍晚时分对富含蓝光的光表现出更强的反应，表现为警觉性注意力提高和睡眠 EEG 特征增加。总的来说，这些数据表明，光敏感性的性别差异可能在确保个体化针对性的光照干预的成功方面发挥关键作用。
