Effects of Red and Blue Light on the Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System

Author Info

Sebastian Kohl Mariangela Schmitt Ulrike Bauer Markus Canazei Wilfried Pohl Otmar Pachinger Markus Stuehlinger

Corresponding Author

Markus Stuehlinger
University Clinic of Internal Medicine III, Cardiology and Angiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

A B S T R A C T

Purpose: Light is an important environmental stimulus influencing everyday life. However, information about the impact of coloured light on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is sparse. In general, red light (RL) is thought to act as an adrenergic trigger, while there is evidence that blue light (BL) induces parasympathetic activation. This is a pilot study to find out, if RL and/or BL affects heart rate variability (HRV). Methods: Participants were randomly exposed first to neutral light (NL) and then to RL and BL for 120 minutes in a special light cabin. During each test run, HRV measurements were performed using both wrist training computers and Holter-ECGs. Furthermore, heart rate, arrhythmias and blood pressure were analysed. All parameters were measured during neutral and repeated during RL or BL in 10 supraventricular tachycardia patients, in 10 patients with heart failure and 10 athletes. Results: During exposure to both RL and BL an increase of blood pressure, improvements of several HRV parameters, but no significant change of heart rate was observed. Neither RL nor BL influenced the occurrence of ectopic beats in Holter ECGs. The most prominent improvement of HRV was found in athletes, whereas increase in blood pressure were comparable between all three groups. Conclusion: RL and BL influence the cardiac ANS. Since no differences were found between different light scenarios, the changes can not solely be attributed to the two-sided model of sympathetic and parasympathetic effects of ANS. However, RL and BL could potentially be used therapeutically to influence HRV in athletes.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Sat 04, Jul 2020
Accepted: Thu 23, Jul 2020
Published: Wed 19, Aug 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Markus Stuehlinger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JICOA.2020.04.06