During a ten-year study of sleep aboard Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) missions, crewmembers reported sleep disturbances via a daily log. Shuttle crewmembers reported sleep disturbance on 58% of inflight nights and ISS crewmembers reported sleep disturbance on 35% of inflight nights. This project will leverage this existing sleep database to search for correlations between environmental factors that NASA routinely records (i.e., hypoxia, noise, hypercapnia) and sleep.

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Dr. George C. Brainard and his colleagues are building on previous research to determine the best wavelengths and intensities of light to reduce sleep and biological rhythm disruption during spaceflight. Brainard is studying healthy men and women to determine the countermeasure potential of solid-state light sources being considered for the International Space Station as well as vehicles and habitats being developed for future space missions. Additional studies on human volunteers will determine the potency of ambient light transmitted though the spacesuit visor during spacewalks. This research could also benefit spaceflight ground support personnel and workers in other industries such as health care, manufacturing and homeland security.

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So Dr. Charles A. Czeisler and colleagues have shown that short-wavelength light in the blue/green range facilitates circadian phase shifts. This project will test the efficacy of exposure to short-wavelength light for pre-launch and in-flight phase shifting. During eight-day ground-based simulations, researchers will shift participants’ sleep-wake schedules by eight hours. Participants will randomly be placed in groups that receive exposure to either ordinary indoor white light or green light. Participants in each lighting category will be randomly selected to experience either a “gradual” shift or a “slam” shift.

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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.

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