Studying in blue-tinted light help drowsy pupils to wake up.

A school has become the first to try out a special blue-tinted light designed to wake up children and become more alert by affecting their internal body clock. The school vision lighting system, designed by technology firm Phillips, comes with four different settings, each designed to effect the children in a subtly different way.

The system is being tested at Epsom and Ewell High School in Surrey, Britain, reports the Daily Mail.

The 'normal' setting is for day-to-day classroom activities, while 'energy' gives a blue tint to the light to invigorate pupils when they need to be more active.

'Focus', which is a whiter light, is designed to help children concentrate during challenging tasks while 'Calm', a warmer colour, makes the room more relaxed.

Research leader Effie Konstatinou, a psychologist at City University, London, said: "Lighting has not been seriously considered as a factor in performance until now."

The system works by manipulating the children's body clock, which is kept in balance with the light received by the eyes.

It is based on research from 2002 which discovered that the amount of light the eye receives determines how the body's circadian system operates.

The system has been trialled in schools in Hamburg in Germany and the results are astonishing.

A total of 166 pupils and 18 teachers took part in the year-long scientific experiment and discovered that reading speed increased by 35%, number of errors fell by 45% while restlessness, or hyperactivity rose by 77% when the blue light was on.