4.6 Article

Effects of Circadian Phase Tailored Light Therapy on Sleep, Mood, and Cognition in Alzheimer's Disease: Preliminary Findings in a Pivotal Study

Journal

FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 12, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.755322

Keywords

circadian rhythm; melatonin; light therapy; sleep quality; cognition; Alzheimer's disease; dim light melatonin onset (DLMO)

Categories

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study investigates the effects of light therapy on sleep quality, mood, and cognition in patients with mild/moderate Alzheimer's disease. It is shown that light therapy tailored to the individual's circadian phase can induce a circadian phase shift, improve subjective sleep quality and cognitive performance, and shorten the time between dim light melatonin onset and falling asleep.
It is shown that the circadian system is affected in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) even at an early stage of the disease and that such dysfunction may be detrimental to sleep, mood, and cognitive functioning. Light is a strong central modulator of the circadian rhythms and is potentially beneficial to mood and cognitive functioning via a direct effect or indirectly via its modulating effects on circadian rhythms. This study focuses on tracking the effect of light therapy on sleep quality, mood, and cognition in AD of mild/moderate severity. We performed a single-blind randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of a light therapy treatment tailored to the individual circadian phase as measured by dim light melatonin onset (DLMO). Such a treatment induced an objective circadian phase shift consistent with the melatonin phase response curve to light exposure, led to a shortening of the phase angle DLMO-falling asleep time, and was associated with an improvement in subjective sleep quality and cognitive performance.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available