Study on the effect of awakening daylight in dormitories on morning alertness, mood, fatigue and sleep quality of college students

• Published in: Building and environment Vol. 203; p. 108060
• Main Authors: Dong, Yingjun, Zhang, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Accumulation; Alertness; Awakening daylight; Circadian rhythms; College dormitory; College students; Correlation; Daylight; Dormitories; Exposure; Fatigue; Field tests; Illuminance; Lighting; Mood; Morning; Physiology; Psychology; Sleep; Sleep quality; Students; Summer; Winter; College dormitory; Alertness; Sleep quality; Fatigue; Mood; Awakening daylight
• ISSN: 0360-1323; 1873-684X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108060

Awakening lighting has an important influence on circadian rhythm, alertness, mood and other physiological and psychological indexes. In a real situation with no electric awakening light, psychological suggestion or interference, the influencing mechanism of awakening daylight on human physiology and psychology is explored from the awakening data of dynamic daylight. This data can further guide the application of electric awakening lighting. The effects of daylight exposure at eye level on sleep quality, morning alertness, mood and fatigue of college students in dormitories in Beijing were studied. The subjects were 8 male and 8 female students from 4 dormitories in two adjacent apartments, and field experiments were conducted for 36 days in winter and 30 days in summer. The real-time illuminance of daylight before awakening was recorded by a wireless illuminance sensor, and the amount of light exposure and the maximum illuminance before awakening were calculated. The evaluation data of physiological and psychological indexes such as sleep quality, morning alertness, mood and fatigue were obtained by using sleep monitoring equipment—Jawbone UP3, PSQI, KSS, positive and negative semantic scales. The results showed that the lighting exposure accumulation before awakening in summer were significantly correlated with morning alertness, mood and deep sleep duration and there was a significant correlation between the Emax and morning alertness in summer. In addition, there were significant differences in deep sleep duration and morning alertness between different groups of lighting exposure accumulation in summer. There was no significant correlation between the lighting exposure accumulation or max value of illuminance and the physiological and psychological indexes in winter. •A field study on the effects of awakening daylight on morning alertness, mood, fatigue and sleep quality of college students.•There may be a threshold for the LEA of awakening daylight effect.•Provides a new reference case for electric awakening lighting.