Excess Light Exposure May Take Toll on Muscles and Bones

[repoman]

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/light-pollution-may-take-toll-on-muscles-and-bones/?_r=0

Interesting article, I personally ratchet down my light intake at night with red or amber incandescent 25 watt bulbs and also dim my computer screen on a setting so low it is hard to watch videos.

 

[untermensche]

Maybe these rats got less sleep or altered sleep due to the lights being on all the time?

 

[EricB]

Maybe these rats got less sleep or altered sleep due to the lights being on all the time?

Which would cause a rise in cortisol which increases the rate of muscular atrophy, which can lead to decreases in bone mineral density. That being said, I tend to react like a gremlin to bright light.

Shitty article in comparison to the study, unsurprisingly.

"forelimb grip strength, wire hanging duration, and grid hanging duration" loss in these areas could easily have been neural, given the complexities of the grip function in comparison to simple motor skills. No indication of degree of muscular atrophy, nor was it measured, apparently. But disruptions in circadian rhythms have long been shown to disrupt performance in multiple areas (probably a lot, but I am only familiar with the ones in my field). A rise in cortisol would also be a possible cause of the noted inflammatory response, but this was not measured either.

 

[fromderinside]

Yeah I know this is about light and long term effects. However you might look at other stressors and compare them with those of light and sound. I did. You might look at British pilot landing and take off heart rates studies in 50s through 70s. Modern workload technology and theory came out of those.

Here is a study cone fairly late in the game.

heart Rate as an inflight indicator of pilot workload http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a119093.pdf

Notice it was built on much earlier heart rate studies and reflects about a decade of workload scaling methodology.

Take off and landing offer both mechanical and neurological variables which can be independently measured which can also be use to parse relations to both workload and heart rate measurement.

There are similar studies for light, duration of exposure, sound and light damage risk standards etc.