Exposure to light at night lowers cognitive function

Over the years I have written several posts about the effects of working third shift (or night shift) on workers' health.  There is a growing body of evidence that supports the idea that employees who work third shift can suffer from a cadre of health problems that their day shift counterparts won't suffer from, merely from working at night and sleeping during the day.

I just read an article about a study from Johns Hopkins University that found that regular exposure to bright lights at night can subject you to anxiety, depression and lower cognitive from.  From the article:

Basically, what we found is that chronic exposure to bright light — even the kind of light you experience in your own living room at home or in the workplace at night if you are a shift worker — elevates levels of a certain stress hormone in the body, which results in depression and lowers cognitive function,” said Samer Hattar, a biology professor in the Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.