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Overview

Operational Evaluation of a Photic Countermeasure to Improve Alertness, Performance, and Mood During Night-Shift Work on the 105-Day Study (105-Day Russian Chamber Study)

Principal Investigator:
Charles A. Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D.

Organization:
Harvard-Brigham and Women's Hospital

Long-duration space missions often require long work hours and shifting sleep schedules for astronauts and flight controllers, resulting in decreased alertness and performance. Dr. Charles A. Czeisler is leading a project looking at the use of a lighting countermeasure to improve alertness and performance during night-shift work on long-duration missions. The researchers collected data during a 105-day isolation study in Russia, in which crew members worked a night shift every fifth night and controllers worked 24-hour shifts.

The data will be used to determine the feasibility of monitoring sleep and circadian rhythms and to test the effects of sudden sleep schedule shifts. The researchers are testing the hypothesis that shorter wavelength light will be more beneficial to crew members than intermediate and longer wavelength light. Czeisler and colleagues are also testing the hypotheses that the last third of a 24-hour shift is when controller performance is reduced the most and that shorter wavelength light will be a better countermeasure to mitigate performance reduction during a 24-hour shift.

If lighting proves to be an effective countermeasure, it will reduce the need for pharmaceutical interventions, which could have negative side effects that impact mission operations.

NASA Taskbook Entry

Technical Summary

Co-Investigators:
Laura K. Barger, Ph.D. - Harvard-Brigham and Women's Hospital
Kenneth P. Wright Jr., Ph.D. - University of Colorado
Steven W. Lockley, Ph.D. - Harvard-Brigham and Women's Hospital
Joseph Ronda - Harvard-Brigham and Women's Hospital

The success of long-duration missions depends on the ability of the crew to be alert and maintain high levels of cognitive function while operating complex, technical equipment. Optimal human health, performance and safety during spaceflight requires sufficient sleep and synchrony between the circadian pacemaker which regulates the timing of sleep, endocrine function, alertness and performance and the timing of the imposed sleep-wake schedule.

Crew members of the 105-day experiment will be required to work one night shift every fifth night. This schedule will likely result in sleep loss and circadian misalignment, especially when lighting conditions are similar to those experienced during spaceflight. Mission controllers will work 24-hour shifts, also resulting in both sleep loss and circadian misalignment. It has been well documented in laboratory and field studies that both working the night shift and working extended-duration shifts result in negative effects on alertness, performance and mood.

This study will validate the efficacy and operational feasibility of a lighting countermeasure to improve alertness and performance during night-shift work occurring during long-duration space missions.

Specific Aims

  1. Evaluate the feasibility of monitoring sleep and circadian neuroendocrine rhythms during the 105-day experiment.
     
  2. Test the hypothesis that sleep, alertness, performance and mood will be impaired during acute circadian misalignment associated with night-shift work operations.
     
  3. Test the hypothesis that alertness, performance and mood of crew members exposed to shorter wavelength light (between 485 to 525 nm) during the night shift in the console monitoring room will be significantly better than when those same crew members are exposed to intermediate (545 to 555 nm) or longer (620 to 690 nm) wavelength light during the night shift.
     
  4. Test the hypothesis that the alertness, performance and mood of the external mission controllers will be impaired during the final third of their extended-duration, 24-hour work shift as compared with the first third of that same work shift.
     
  5. Test the hypothesis that the alertness, performance and mood of external missions controllers exposed to shorter wavelength light during the final third of their extended-duration work shift will be significantly better than when those same crew members are exposed to intermediate or longer wavelength light during the night shift.

Throughout the 105-day experiment, a variety of measurements will be obtained to assess sleep, performance, alignment of the circadian system, and melatonin levels. If a lighting countermeasure proves effective, it could negate or reduce the need for pharmaceutical interventions, with potentially lingering side effects, during long missions. A lighting countermeasure could also be beneficial in other unusual non-24 hour lighting cycles and may negate the effects of fatigue on work performance.

Read more about the 105-Day Chamber Study

This project's funding ended in 2010