Circadian photoreceptor sensitivity and impacts of modern lighting on sleep. Light has powerful non-visual effects, including effects on sleep. These non-visual effects are mediated by cells in the ey

Description

Circadian photoreceptor sensitivity and impacts of modern lighting on sleep. Light has powerful non-visual effects, including effects on sleep. These non-visual effects are mediated by cells in the eye that are most sensitive to blue light. There are large individual differences in sensitivity to non-visual effects of light that are not understood and that would give great insight into suboptimal sleep, which has become widespread in modern society. This study will be the first systematic examination of individual differences in the effect of blue light on sleep and will uncover how alterations in the gene responsible for the effects of blue light on sleep (OPN4) contribute to these differences. This will lead to scalable individualised solutions to the unmet problem of how modern light environments impact sleep.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: A/Prof Andrew Phillips