Engineering Commons^™

The Effects Of Light Exposure On Flight Crew Alertness Levels, Lori Brown

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

Fatigue is a threat to aviation safety because of the impairments in alertness and performance it creates. One in five pilots admits that they have made a serious error and say that they have had a "near miss" due to sleepiness, and limited effective fatigue countermeasures available in the operational setting. A review of literature and results of this study show the acute alerting effect of blue light to be a potentially useful countermeasure to reduce physiological, perceived, and cognitive fatigue, where conditions allow its use.