Enlighten

Light is the primary zeitgeber (time-giver) for circadian rhythm in humans by affecting the release of melatonin. Due to the lack of light perception, many people who are blind or visually impaired suffer from a specific type of circadian rhythm disorder: non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder (Non-24). The most common symptom of Non-24 is excessive sleepiness during the daytime and sleep deprivation during the night. 

The internal body clock of individuals with Non-24 is out of sync with the 24-hour day-night cycle, shifting in and out of alignment. With Non-24, the length of a day is typically longer or shorter than 24 hours, e.g., 24.5 or 23 hours. Such misalignment will add up across time and cause severe consequences.  

An illustrative example of Non-24: Suppose the circadian rhythm of a totally blind individual is 24.5 hours, the extra 0.5 hours will “add up” every day: After 48 days, the circadian rhythm will be completely reversed. After another 48 days, the sync will be back to normal. This phase shift continues, and the individual will suffer from reversed circadian rhythm periodically. 

In the U.S. alone, about 1.3 million Americans are legally blind – a figure that may double by 2050. Among those, approximately 10% are totally blind. Among people who are totally blind, 70% suffer from Non-24 mostly due to the lack of light perception, i.e., Photic Entrainment.

Enlighten is a wearable-enabled olfactory-based circadian regulation platform for visually impaired people who suffer from non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder. 

We leverage a proprietary machine learning-based early detection algorithm on daily activity markers to identify internal circadian clock abnormality and provide just-in-time adaptive interventions through olfactory stimuli and behavior zeitgebers.

Enlighten primarily serves visually impaired people living with non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, especially the totally blind population, which consists of 0.13 million people in the US. It also has a broader impact on the general population with sleep disorders.

Currently, the mainstream nonphotic entrainments/treatments for visually impaired individuals who suffer from non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder rely on pharmaceutical approaches with melatonin or behavioral zeitgebers (such as exercise, mealtime, social interaction). However, current treatment methods demand repeated intake, cause drug resistance, and require extra effort. In the meantime, diagnosis is challenging. Non-24 is a chronic condition that takes time to be identified by the doctor (largely relying on active self-report) and may conflate with other sleep disorders. 

Enlighten leverages an early detection algorithm on daily activity markers to identify visually impaired people’s internal circadian clock abnormality and provides accessible and affordable just-in-time adaptive interventions through olfactory stimuli and behavior zeitgebers to improve visually impaired people’s circadian health.

Enlighten

Our team consists of HCI researchers with essential interests in circadian health, brian-computer interface, digital healthcare, and affective computing. 

Light is the most studied zeitgeber in human circadian research, and we realize the existing research gap and lack of attention for those who are blind or visually impaired suffer from non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder.

We want to connect and partner with social organizations through Solve community with a big reach of visually impaired people who suffer from non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder to test and pilot our product, and improve their circadian health.

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