Is the use of high correlated color temperature light at night related to delay of sleep timing in university students? A cross-country study in Japan and China

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

Blue-enriched white light at night has the potential to delay the circadian rhythm in daily life. This study was conducted to determine whether the use of high correlated color temperature (CCT) light at home at night is associated with delay of sleep timing in university students.

Methods

The survey was conducted in 2014–2015 in 447 university students in Japan and 327 students in China. Habitual sleep timing and type of CCT light at home were investigated by using a self-administered questionnaire. The Japanese students were significantly later than the Chinese students in bedtime, wake time, and midpoint of sleep. They were asked whether the lighting in the room where they spend most of their time at night was closer to warm color (low CCT) or daylight color (high CCT). The amount of light exposure level during daily life was measured for at least 1 week by the use of a light sensor in 60 students in each country.

Results

The percentages of participants who used high CCT lighting at night were 61.6% for Japanese students and 80.8% for Chinese students. Bedtime and sleep onset time on school days and free days were significantly later in the high CCT group than in the low CCT group in Japan. The midpoint of sleep in the high CCT group was significantly later than that in the low CCT group on free days but not on school days. On the other hand, none of the sleep measurements on school days and free days were significantly different between the high CCT and low CCT groups in China. Illuminance level of light exposure during the night was significantly higher in Japanese than in Chinese, but that in the morning was significantly higher in China than in Japan.

Conclusions

The use of high CCT light at night is associated with delay of sleep timing in Japanese university students but not in Chinese university students. The effects of light at night on sleep timing and circadian rhythm may be complicated by other lifestyle factors depending on the country.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40101-021-00257-x.

Related collections

Most cited references 40

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Social jetlag: misalignment of biological and social time.

Marc Wittmann, Jenny Dinich, Martha Merrow … (2006)

Humans show large differences in the preferred timing of their sleep and activity. This so-called "chronotype" is largely regulated by the circadian clock. Both genetic variations in clock genes and environmental influences contribute to the distribution of chronotypes in a given population, ranging from extreme early types to extreme late types with the majority falling between these extremes. Social (e.g., school and work) schedules interfere considerably with individual sleep preferences in the majority of the population. Late chronotypes show the largest differences in sleep timing between work and free days leading to a considerable sleep debt on work days, for which they compensate on free days. The discrepancy between work and free days, between social and biological time, can be described as 'social jetlag.' Here, we explore how sleep quality and psychological wellbeing are associated with individual chronotype and/or social jetlag. A total of 501 volunteers filled out the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ) as well as additional questionnaires on: (i) sleep quality (SF-A), (ii) current psychological wellbeing (Basler Befindlichkeitsbogen), (iii) retrospective psychological wellbeing over the past week (POMS), and (iv) consumption of stimulants (e.g., caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol). Associations of chronotype, wellbeing, and stimulant consumption are strongest in teenagers and young adults up to age 25 yrs. The most striking correlation exists between chronotype and smoking, which is significantly higher in late chronotypes of all ages (except for those in retirement). We show these correlations are most probably a consequence of social jetlag, i.e., the discrepancies between social and biological timing rather than a simple association to different chronotypes. Our results strongly suggest that work (and school) schedules should be adapted to chronotype whenever possible.

0 comments Cited 434 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock.

David Berson, Felice A Dunn, Motoharu Takao (2002)

Light synchronizes mammalian circadian rhythms with environmental time by modulating retinal input to the circadian pacemaker-the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Such photic entrainment requires neither rods nor cones, the only known retinal photoreceptors. Here, we show that retinal ganglion cells innervating the SCN are intrinsically photosensitive. Unlike other ganglion cells, they depolarized in response to light even when all synaptic input from rods and cones was blocked. The sensitivity, spectral tuning, and slow kinetics of this light response matched those of the photic entrainment mechanism, suggesting that these ganglion cells may be the primary photoreceptors for this system.

0 comments Cited 371 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Social jetlag and obesity.

Till Roenneberg, Karla V. Allebrandt, Martha Merrow … (2012)

Obesity has reached crisis proportions in industrialized societies. Many factors converge to yield increased body mass index (BMI). Among these is sleep duration. The circadian clock controls sleep timing through the process of entrainment. Chronotype describes individual differences in sleep timing, and it is determined by genetic background, age, sex, and environment (e.g., light exposure). Social jetlag quantifies the discrepancy that often arises between circadian and social clocks, which results in chronic sleep loss. The circadian clock also regulates energy homeostasis, and its disruption-as with social jetlag-may contribute to weight-related pathologies. Here, we report the results from a large-scale epidemiological study, showing that, beyond sleep duration, social jetlag is associated with increased BMI. Our results demonstrate that living "against the clock" may be a factor contributing to the epidemic of obesity. This is of key importance in pending discussions on the implementation of Daylight Saving Time and on work or school times, which all contribute to the amount of social jetlag accrued by an individual. Our data suggest that improving the correspondence between biological and social clocks will contribute to the management of obesity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

0 comments Cited 249 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Shigekazu Higuchi:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7131-0792

higu-s@design.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Yandan Lin: ydlin@fudan.edu.cn

Jingjing Qiu: lve@fudan.edu.cn

Yichi Zhang: jedizhang.zj@gmail.com

Michihiro Ohashi: ohashi.michihiro.572@s.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Sang-il Lee: si.lee@eng.hokudai.acjp

Shingo Kitamura: s-kita@ncnp.go.jp

Akira Yasukouchi: physioanthropol@yahoo.co.jp

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Physiol Anthropol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Physiol Anthropol

Title: Journal of Physiological Anthropology

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Print): 1880-6791

ISSN (Electronic): 1880-6805

Publication date (Electronic): 8 June 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 8 June 2021

Publication date Collection: 2021

Volume: 40

Electronic Location Identifier: 7

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.177174.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2242 4849, Department of Human Science, Faculty of Design, , Kyushu University, ; 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540 Japan

[2 ]GRID grid.8547.e, ISNI 0000 0001 0125 2443, Institute for Electric Light Sources, , Fudan University, ; Shanghai, 200433 China

[3 ]GRID grid.177174.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2242 4849, Department of Kansei Science, Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences, , Kyushu University, ; 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540 Japan

[4 ]GRID grid.39158.36, ISNI 0000 0001 2173 7691, Laboratory of Environmental Ergonomics, Faculty of Engineering, , Hokkaido University, ; Kita 8, Nishi 5, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0808 Japan

[5 ]GRID grid.419280.6, ISNI 0000 0004 1763 8916, Department of Sleep-Wake Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, , National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, ; 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8553 Japan

Author information

Shigekazu Higuchi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7131-0792

Article

Publisher ID: 257

DOI: 10.1186/s40101-021-00257-x

PMC ID: 8188719

PubMed ID: 34103077

SO-VID: a5499efe-053f-48b5-aab0-4e45190b3aca

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 29 December 2020

Date accepted : 31 May 2021

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001691, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science;

Award ID: JSPS KAKENHI (17K18926)

Award Recipient : Shigekazu Higuchi

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Anthropology

Keywords: circadian rhythm,sleep,blue light,social jetlag,university students,international comparison

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Anthropology

Keywords: circadian rhythm, sleep, blue light, social jetlag, university students, international comparison

Is the use of high correlated color temperature light at night related to delay of sleep timing in university students? A cross-country study in Japan and China

Read this article at

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Supplementary Information

Related collections

25th European Students' Conference

Most cited references 40

Social jetlag: misalignment of biological and social time.

Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock.

Social jetlag and obesity.

Author and article information

Contributors

Journal

Affiliations

Author information

Article

History

Funding

Categories

Custom metadata

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 61

Cited by 8

Most referenced authors 344