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Spinoff story
Paired Sleep Tracker, Light Therapy Tools Retrain Circadian Rhythms
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Since around 2000, the Johnson Space Center-funded National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) has supported research on the use of blue light wavelengths to regulate circadian rhythms. Based on this research, London- and San Francisco-based Circadia developed a light therapy system to train the user’s sleep cycle. A cell phone app based on software partially funded by the NSBRI uses data from a sleep tracker to program each day’s light therapy, via a portable lighting device, inducing daytime wakefulness to facilitate nighttime sleepiness.