Controlling for and monitoring light, food and body temperature, as well as monitoring with EEG, EMG, ECG, and taking saliva samples of melatonin and cortisol, would allowing patients to use their laptop affect results through exposure to blue light? While patients in our sleep lab are required to dim the brightness of their electronic equipment, they have access to it during the periods they are awake. Is this exposure significant enough to alter data?
There are two issues to address in this question. The first is the actual illuminance that the subjects are receiving when using their electronic equipment, which is an empirical question. Even very low illuminance has the capacity to alter hormonal rhythms, but this is quite dependent on the light history. So, if the subject has been in very dim light (
Thanks for your answer Jamie. While we use our light meter to ensure the room light is between 20 - 30 lux for the length of the protocol, I hadn't considered measuring the light from their laptops with the meter too.
I myself use some of the software you are referring to (Flux), and had contemplated asking patients to install it on their system prior to coming into the lab, but was uncertain whether this was something they might not be willing to do. Having said that, as they are coming into the institute not only to allow us to measure deficits in their sleep, particular delayed sleep phases, they also undergo psychological and psychiatric treatment to help with their mental health issues, so this may be something we suggest they use in the long run to coincide with their treatment.
We restrict movement to use of the bathroom, and attempt to get the patient to remain seated in an armchair for the length of the protocol (excluding sleep of course where they can use the beds). Do you think the light from the electronic equipment on a patient that has restricted movement is going to cause an issue with our recording and samples?
Every hour or so we shut down all electronic equipment and record a 4 minute EEG output (we also record all EEG for the entire protocol) with the patient focusing on one spot on the wall for the length of the recording. Would this 4 minute EEG immediately after shutdown be sufficient or would we have to shut electronic equipment a bit earlier prior to this recording to ensure no interference??
Thanks for your input, this is an area I have only been working in for about a year so I still have much to learn.
As to the light from the electronic equipment on a patient that has restricted movement causing an issue with our recording and samples, again, I would just measure it and make sure the illuminance that the subject is receiving is within the variability of what is present in the room. As for the EEG (KDT?), the only thing I would worry about is that the cognitive and emotional content of the previous period (e.g., when some might be playing a video game that elicits stress) would influence the results of the EEG recording.
Thank you Jamie and Ellen, you have put some of my concerns into perspective. The content eliciting emotional responses is something I had not considered, but is something I should attend to, particularly as we do administer mood rating scales throughout the protocol, and it is true that it could influence EEG recordings. Ellen my concern was usage while awake. We shut down all electronics when patients are sleeping.
Also asking patients to self-report late evening usage is something we could also factor into the design as we do request patients complete a sleep diary for two weeks leading up to their overnight lab date. This diary coincides with fourteen days of actigraphy. Using the data I could compare minimal to maximum electronic usage to sleep patterns during that time.
Thanks again!
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