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Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish
Exposure to artificial bright light in the late evening and early night, common in modern society, triggers phase delay of circadian rhythms, contributing to delayed sleep phase syndrome and seasonal affective disorder. Studying a unique population like the Old Order Amish (OOA), whose lifestyles re...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7344929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32575882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124460 |
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author | Lee, Ellen E. Amritwar, Ameya Hong, L. Elliot Mohyuddin, Iqra Brown, Timothy Postolache, Teodor T. |
author_facet | Lee, Ellen E. Amritwar, Ameya Hong, L. Elliot Mohyuddin, Iqra Brown, Timothy Postolache, Teodor T. |
author_sort | Lee, Ellen E. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Exposure to artificial bright light in the late evening and early night, common in modern society, triggers phase delay of circadian rhythms, contributing to delayed sleep phase syndrome and seasonal affective disorder. Studying a unique population like the Old Order Amish (OOA), whose lifestyles resemble pre-industrial societies, may increase understanding of light’s relationship with health. Thirty-three participants (aged 25–74, mean age 53.5; without physical or psychiatric illnesses) from an OOA community in Lancaster, PA, were assessed with wrist-worn actimeters/light loggers for at least 2 consecutive days during winter/spring (15 January–16 April) and spring/summer (14 May–10 September). Daily activity, sleep–wake cycles, and their relationship with light exposure were analyzed. Overall activity levels and light exposure increased with longer photoperiod length. While seasonal variations in the amount and spectral content of light exposure were equivalent to those reported previously for non-Amish groups, the OOA experienced a substantially (~10-fold) higher amplitude of diurnal variation in light exposure (darker nights and brighter days) throughout the year than reported for the general population. This pattern may be contributing to lower rates of SAD, short sleep, delayed sleep phase, eveningness, and metabolic dysregulation, previously reported among the OOA population. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7344929 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73449292020-07-09 Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish Lee, Ellen E. Amritwar, Ameya Hong, L. Elliot Mohyuddin, Iqra Brown, Timothy Postolache, Teodor T. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Exposure to artificial bright light in the late evening and early night, common in modern society, triggers phase delay of circadian rhythms, contributing to delayed sleep phase syndrome and seasonal affective disorder. Studying a unique population like the Old Order Amish (OOA), whose lifestyles resemble pre-industrial societies, may increase understanding of light’s relationship with health. Thirty-three participants (aged 25–74, mean age 53.5; without physical or psychiatric illnesses) from an OOA community in Lancaster, PA, were assessed with wrist-worn actimeters/light loggers for at least 2 consecutive days during winter/spring (15 January–16 April) and spring/summer (14 May–10 September). Daily activity, sleep–wake cycles, and their relationship with light exposure were analyzed. Overall activity levels and light exposure increased with longer photoperiod length. While seasonal variations in the amount and spectral content of light exposure were equivalent to those reported previously for non-Amish groups, the OOA experienced a substantially (~10-fold) higher amplitude of diurnal variation in light exposure (darker nights and brighter days) throughout the year than reported for the general population. This pattern may be contributing to lower rates of SAD, short sleep, delayed sleep phase, eveningness, and metabolic dysregulation, previously reported among the OOA population. MDPI 2020-06-21 2020-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7344929/ /pubmed/32575882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124460 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Lee, Ellen E. Amritwar, Ameya Hong, L. Elliot Mohyuddin, Iqra Brown, Timothy Postolache, Teodor T. Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish |
title | Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish |
title_full | Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish |
title_fullStr | Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish |
title_full_unstemmed | Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish |
title_short | Daily and Seasonal Variation in Light Exposure among the Old Order Amish |
title_sort | daily and seasonal variation in light exposure among the old order amish |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7344929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32575882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124460 |
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