Researcher at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) found that tailored lighting intervention can significantly help Alzheimer patients to improve sleep quality, and reduce depressive symptoms and agitation behavior.

In addition to memory loss, people diagnosed with Alzheimer disease also suffered from sleep disturbances, depression, and agitation. Dr. Mariana Figueiro, the Professor and Director at LRC, has been investigating how lighting intervention can lessen the impact of these symptoms in older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and has published her latest findings in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

(Image: LRC)

The study used a variety of light sources such as floor luminaires, light boxes, and light tables to deliver the tailored, individualized lighting intervention to 46 patients with moderate to late-stage ADRD in eight long-term care facilities for 14 weeks. The patients were exposed to lighting with high circadian stimulus (CS) of 0.4 or control low CS of < 0.1.

The first aim of the study was to extend earlier studies and to again validate the CS metric by investigating the impact of lighting intervention on subjective and objective measures of nighttime sleep. The secondary aim was to determine whether the lighting intervention would improve caregiver-assessed participant scores in measures of depression, agitation, and quality of life.

Results revealed that, compared to baseline, the active lighting intervention significantly improved sleep quality, and reduced depressive symptoms and agitation behavior.