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Short-wavelength and short-wavelength-enhanced light have a strong impact on night-time working performance, subjective feelings of alertness and circadian physiology. In the present study, we investigated acute effects of white light sources with varied reduced portions of short wavelengths on cognitive and visual performance, mood and cardiac output.Thirty-one healthy subjects were investigated in a balanced cross-over design under three light spectra in a simulated night-shift paradigm without circadian adaptation.Exposure to the light spectrum with the largest attenuation of short wavelengths reduced heart rate and increased vagal cardiac parameters during the night compared to the other two light spectra without deleterious effects on sustained attention, working memory and subjective alertness. In addition, colour discrimination capability was significantly decreased under this light source.To our knowledge, the present study for the first time demonstrates that polychromatic white light with reduced short wavelengths, fulfilling current lighting standards for indoor illumination, may have a positive impact on cardiac physiology of night-shift workers without detrimental consequences for cognitive performance and alertness.

BackgroundBurnout is generally perceived a unified disorder with homogeneous symptomatology across people (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy). However, increasing evidence points to intra-individual patterns of burnout symptoms in non-clinical samples such as students, athletes, healthy, and burned-out employees. Different burnout subtypes might therefore exist. Yet, burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles have hardly been explored in clinical patients, and the samples investigated in previous studies were rather heterogeneous including patients with various physical, psychological, and social limitations, symptoms, and disabilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles in clinically diagnosed burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program, and to investigate whether the subtypes differ in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics.MethodsOne hundred three patients (66 women, 37 men) with a clinical burnout diagnosis, who were enrolled in a 5 week employee rehabilitation program in two specialized psychosomatic clinics in Austria, completed a series of questionnaires including the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS), the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Recovery-Stress-Questionnaire for Work. Cluster analyses with the three MBI-GS subscales as clustering variables were used to identify the burnout subtypes. Subsequent multivariate/univariate analysis of variance and Pearson chi-square tests were performed to investigate differences in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsThree different burnout subtypes were discovered: the exhausted subtype, the exhausted/cynical subtype, and the burned-out subtype. The burned-out subtype and the exhausted/cynical subtype showed both more severe depression symptoms and a worse recovery/resources-stress balance than the exhausted subtype. Furthermore, the burned-out subtype was more depressed than the exhausted/cynical subtype, but no difference was observed between these two subtypes with regard to perceived stress, recovery, and resources. Sociodemographic characteristics were not associated with the subtypes.ConclusionsThe present study indicates that there are different subtypes in clinical burnout patients (exhausted, exhausted/cynical, and burned-out), which might represent patients at different developmental stages in the burnout cycle. Future studies need to replicate the current findings, investigate the stability of the symptom patterns, and examine the efficacy of rehabilitation interventions in different subtypes.