The Right Lighting Can Calm People With Alzheimer's

A new study presented at the Alzheimer's Association's annual meeting suggests illumination that imitates natural night-day patterns could improve sleep and mood problems for nursing community residents with Alzheimer's, reports HealthDay News . The researchers found this lighting intervention encouraged less sleep disturbance, depression, and agitation. The interventions were performed on 43 nursing community residents in three states for four weeks, and 37 residents for six months. The personalized lighting was either a custom-designed LED light table or individual room lighting, based on where subjects spent most of their time during the day. Personal light meters monitored their exposures. The intervention was designed to activate circadian rhythm, which releases melatonin in the brain that regulates normal sleep-wake cycles. Because nursing community residents are often exposed to inconsistent levels of artificial light, these rhythms can be disrupted. After four weeks, sleep disturbance and depression scores in subjects exposed to the tailored intervention declined significantly. After six months, sleep disturbance scores had fallen by about half, while average depression scores among the light-exposed were less than half of baseline levels.