Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 18, 2026
Multi-Modal Home Sleep Monitoring in Older Adults
Published on: January 26, 2019
Bright-light treatment reduces actigraphic-measured daytime sleep in nursing home patients with dementia: a pilot
1Dept. of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Section for General Practice, University of Bergen, Kalfarveien 31, 5018 Bergen, Norway. Arne.Fetveit@isf.uib.no
Objective:
The authors evaluated the effects of bright-light therapy on daytime sleep among nursing home patients with dementia.
Methods:
Eleven patients with sleep/wake disturbances received 2 hours/day of morning bright-light exposure for 2 weeks. Sleep was measured with actigraphy and nursing staff diaries.
Results:
Daytime sleep decreased significantly in the period from rising time to 3:00 P.M. with bright-light treatment. Treatment effects did not last into the 16-week post-treatment period.
Conclusions:
Bright light exposure was effective in reducing daytime sleep in nursing home patients with dementia; this finding is possibly related to bright light's acute alerting effects.