BRIGHT Lab

Our Mission

The BRIGHT lab (Biological Rhythms and Light lab) aims to advance the understanding of how insufficient sleep and circadian rhythm disruptions affect human health, performance, and safety, and to develop tools to mitigate sleep and circadian disruption through innovative experimental and computational research. We are committed to translating our findings into actionable strategies that promote well-being and equity in sleep and circadian health for all.

About Us

Established in 2022, the BRIGHT Lab is led by Melissa A. St. Hilaire, Assistant Professor of Data Science at Merrimack College and Part-time Lecturer on Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The lab utilizes Dr. St. Hilaire’s 20+ years of expertise and past research experience in both computational and experimental approaches to understanding the impact of sleep and circadian rhythms on human health, performance, and safety.

Past research by Dr. St. Hilaire has been focused in the following areas:

1. Studying the effects of the timing, duration, intensity, and wavelength of light exposure on circadian phase resetting, melatonin suppression, and acute alerting effects on performance in humans.
2. Studying the effects of insufficient sleep, including altered durations and patterns of sleep, on human neurobehavioral performance and alertness.
3. Applying machine learning approaches to estimate sleep-loss-related performance impairment from baseline measures of performance.
4. Applying computational approaches to analyze human circadian rhythms in multiple physiological signals (e.g., melatonin, markers of bone metabolism, urinary metabolites) studied under both laboratory conditions and in field-based studies.
5. Developing and refining biomathematical models of sleep, circadian rhythms, and neurobehavioral performance, including individualized predictions of highly variable sleep-wake schedules collected under operational settings.
6. Developing and refining biomathematical models of the effects of light on the human circadian system. 

The BRIGHT Lab currently has two actively funded experimental studies:

• “Menstrual-phase-dependent differences in response to chronic variable sleep loss” This inpatient laboratory study, which is funded by an active NIH R01 award and is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Shadab A. Rahman at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, aims to quantify the impact of chronic variable sleep deficiency on neurobehavioral performance in young healthy naturally cycling pre-menopausal women across the menstrual cycle. This study will also investigate the role of core body temperature, progesterone, and estradiol in mediating these responses. This study is expected to run through March 2026.
• “The FeMSLeeP Study: Field-based study of Menstrual cycle phase on Sleep, Light exposure, and Performance in young women” This field-based study, which is funded by a Merrimack College START award, aims to quantify daily sleep and light exposure patterns as well as the impact of these sleep and light patterns on neurobehavioral performance in both naturally cycling women and women on hormonal forms of contraception across one complete menstrual cycle. This study is expected to run through December 2024.