Is colour the answer to jetlag? Researchers find that subtle hues of light help our brain tell the time of day

  • Colour of light has major impact on how the brain measures time of day
  • Researchers say colours could be used to manipulate our bosy clock

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

Published: 18:01 EST, 17 April 2015 | Updated: 18:09 EST, 17 April 2015

It is the bane of every traveller's life - the groggy, confused feeling of jetlag.

Now, researchers say they have worked out how our brain what knows what time of night or day it is.

The key, they say, is colour.

Researchers say that during twilight light is reliably bluer than during the day, and this triggers our body clock.

Researchers say that during twilight light is reliably bluer than during the day, and this triggers our body clock.

THE COLOUR OD THE DAY 

Besides the well-known changes in light intensity that occur as the sun rises and sets, the scientists found that during twilight light is reliably bluer than during the day.

After dusk, when the sky turned a darker blue, 

Researchers found that at twilight, for instance, the light becomes bluer - then after dusk, a darker blue.

By manipulating this light, they believe they could fool the brain and control our body clock.

'This is the first time that we've been able to test the theory that colour affects our body clock in any mammal, said Dr Timothy Brown from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester, who led the research:

'It has always been very hard to separate the change in colour to the change in brightness but using new experimental tools and a psychophysics approach we were successful.

'What's exciting about our research is that the same findings can be applied to humans.

'So, in theory, colour could be used to manipulate our clock, which could be useful for shift workers or travellers wanting to minimise jet lag.'

The study, for the first time, provides a neuronal mechanism for how our internal clock can measure changes in light colour that accompany dawn and dusk.

In research publishing on April 17th in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, the researchers looked at the change in light around dawn and dusk to analyze whether colour could be used to determine time of day. 

Besides the well-known changes in light intensity that occur as the sun rises and sets, the scientists found that during twilight light is reliably bluer than during the day.

The researchers next recorded electrical activity from the brain clock while mice were shown different visual stimuli. 

The scientists then simulated an artificial sky that recreated the daily changes in colour and brightness, as they were measured at the top of the University's Pariser Building for more than a month.

The scientists then simulated an artificial sky that recreated the daily changes in colour and brightness, as they were measured at the top of the University's Pariser Building for more than a month.

They found that many of the neurons were more sensitive to changes in colour between blue and yellow than to changes in brightness.

The scientists then simulated an artificial sky that recreated the daily changes in colour and brightness, as they were measured at the top of the University's Pariser Building for more than a month. 

As expected for nocturnal animals, when mice were placed under this artificial sky for several days, the highest body temperatures occurred just after dusk, when the sky turned a darker blue, indicating that their body clock was working optimally. 

If only the brightness of the sky was changed, with no change in colour, the mice became more active before dusk, demonstrating that their body clock wasn't properly aligned to the day-night cycle.

 

 

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