Abstract
Personal light exposure is a modifiable determinant of circadian and neurobehavioural health, yet its everyday structure across populations remains poorly understood. We report a harmonised, multi-country field study of ocular light exposure in 191 adults across nine sites in Costa Rica, Germany, Ghana, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, comprising 1,480 participant-days. Participants wore calibrated light loggers near the corneal plane and at chest level and completed repeated contextual assessments. Average daytime exposure remained below recommended melanopic levels, with adherence varying by site, daily phase and photoperiod. Exposure generally increased with latitude despite greater year-round sunlight at lower latitudes, suggesting behavioural filtering through shade-seeking, indoor living or heat avoidance. Individual and activity-level differences explained more variation than site. Daylight access, outdoor activity and micro-environment were the strongest exposure correlates, whereas demographic factors showed limited associations. This openly accessible dataset provides the first multi-site view of real-world ocular light exposure.
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bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 10 Jun 2026.
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