The Effects Of Fluorescent Versus Led Lighting On Soldiers In Military Shelters

The current study examines the effects of fluorescent versus LED lighting on Soldiers in military shelters. To ensure a naturalistic setting, 23 enrolled U.S. Army infantry Soldiers performed a series of tasks in a Tent Expandable Modular Personnel (TEMPER) military shelter. The tasks included: visual acuity task, military map task, tent attractiveness questionnaire, mood assessment and conflict resolution scales. These tasks were chosen based on a stressors paradigm that highlights the typical stressors of military members (e.g. interpersonal conflict, psychological distress, high workload, and worries about living environment quality). Results show that overall lighting color temperature and illuminance levels do not play a role in Soldier performance and behavior, yet the study elucidates a number of limitations such as short lighting exposure time which may contribute to the results. The current study adds to the limited research on LED lighting and proposes several new areas of exploration such as determining time thresholds for the effects of lighting on humans