Speaker
Dr. Jin Pan, Group Leader, Lighting Environment Research Lab, China Academy of Art
Abstract
For thousand years of human history under the sun, the human body has established an intrinsic circadian rhythm synchronized with a 24 light-darkness cycle. The circadian rhythm is also known as the circadian clock, which tunes the psychology and physiology status of the human. It has been found that the light exposure exerts strong influence on not only the circadian rhythms but also the human health in various respects. For instance, the light exposure at night may cause melatonin suppression resulting in health hazard such as sleep disorder. This kind of problems has become important especially in the modern IT society, where long-time light exposure from the computer displays or working patterns at night are inevitable.
The non-visual effects of light on circadian rhythm were first reported in 1980s', and ever since then, important findings were extensively reported from various scientific fields of neurology, biochemistry, etc. It has been established that light exposure effects on circadian rhythm should exist, although the concrete mechanisms are still unclear.
Since the light exposure effects on the human body are synergistic processes among physical, neurological, biochemical ones with many variables, it is highly demanded to systematically clarify the bio-physical mechanisms of light-induced effects and to minimize the bio-hazard risks. Furthermore, it is desired to find out affirmative usage of light in the well-defined conditions which promote the human health.
In our research program, we focus on the light therapy to treat Sleep Disorder problem of elderly people. Light exposure, with various light patterns (timing, intensity, rate of change, duration, and various optical spectra) has been systematically applied and we pursue appropriate light conditions, not only to minimize the health risks and but also to improve the human's biorhythm, cognition and sleep. We have so far developed Smart Bracelets for tracking device to record the treated patients' biological data. Those data include heart rate, blood pressure and sleep pattern to evaluate the effectiveness of the light therapy and will be integrated as (bio-)Materials Informatics (MI). In future, the MI database will lead us to develop therapy devices, such as healthy light sources or handy remedy lasers, etc.
Thus, we would promote interdisciplinary collaborations with not only bio-scientists but also materials scientists.
