Blue light as a substitute for coffee not to fall asleep at the wheel

Not to fall asleep at the wheel, it is possible to drink a coffee ... or connect a blue light in the cockpit of the car. Bordeaux researchers have indeed shown that driver vigilance is stimulated in the same way by caffeine and continuous exposure of the driver has a blue light.

On motorways, drowsiness is the origin of a fatal accident in three, according to Traffic Safety.

The blue light is known to act on certain cells of the retina involved in the control of wakefulness. By stimulating these cells, reduces the production of melatonin, a hormone that triggers sleepiness, explained in a statement Thursday researchers Sleep laboratory, attention and neuropsychiatry at the University of Bordeaux Segalen (CNRS).

The researchers tested the effect of blue light on 48 drivers, aged on average 33 years. They all led three times for 400 km at night, a week apart, using either coffee or a placebo (a decaffeinated) or being lighted by an LED.

With coffee and blue light, drivers crossing half the lateral lines with placebo, the researchers, who published an article in the journal PLOS One.

These results need to be confirmed on a larger number of drivers and women.