Bright lights help sleep

Publisert

A study in Norwegian nursing homes found that bright light treatment in patients with sleep disturbances provided a non-pharmacological alternative to improving sleeping patterns.

Doctoral student Arne Fetveit from the Department of Public Medicine at the University of Bergen (UiB) defended his thesis on bright light therapy this past summer. Studying broken sleeping patterns in dementia patients in a Norwegian nursing home, Fetveit found that a two-hour treatment with bright, artificial lights in the morning enabled many of these patients to sleep better and more continuously during the night.

According to the study, which was published in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, the bright light treatment may help to alter the phase and strengthen the existing circadian rhythm in patients with insomnia problems, thus creating a clearer distinction between night and day and helping the patients to sleep better.

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