Contact: Mary Cimo
cimom@rpi.edu
518-687-7174
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Lack of Morning Light Keeping Teenagers Up at Night (2 of 3)

Caption: As part of a USGBC-funded research project at North Carolina's Smith Middle School in 2009, Zoe Caira wears a personal light-measuring device, called a Daysimeter, to monitor her rest and activity patterns and the amount of circadian light -- short-wavelength (blue) light -- reaching her eyes. LRC research scientists leading the study had her wear orange glasses to block the blue light, placing her in "circadian darkness," to test whether the removal of morning light delays production of melatonin, the hormone that indicates to the body when it's nighttime.

Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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