Light Control-Based Interventions to Improve Symptoms After Night Shifts in Nurses: A Review

Shift work disorder is common among nurses who work night shifts. It is characterized by insomnia after the shift and excessive daytime somnolence the day after for a period of three months or longer. The objective of this review was to synthesize evidence regarding the improvement of shift work disorder symptoms following light-control-based therapies in nurses. We searched the PubMed and Google Scholar databases for relevant articles. Of the articles that contained Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) descriptors, those that did not fulfill the objective of the search were rejected. Finally, 10 articles were included in the review. The literature search showed that light-based intervention is a plausible nonpharmacological therapy for shift work disorder symptoms in nurses. In some studies, exposure to red light, or blue light depletion, during the shift was also used with good results. Light-based interventions and their variants are potentially useful nonpharmacological therapeutic measures for treating insomnia and daytime somnolence in nurses.