Scientists Find Blue Light-Treatment Device Helps Elderly Sleep Better

June 3, 2009 3:09 p.m. EST

Troy, NY (AHN) - Scientists have discovered using special goggles that emit a blue light can help elderly people sleep better.

Sleep disruptions become more frequent as people age, and some studies have found that up to half of all people over the age of 65 have trouble sleeping.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center said in a statement that they, and scientists elsewhere, have demonstrated that blue light is effective at stimulating the circadian system when it is used with the right "light intensity, spatial distribution, timing, and duration."

So they came up with a light goggle that delivers blue light and can be worn while people sleep.

"Light and dark patterns are the major synchronizer of circadian rhythms to the 24-hour solar day," Mariana Figueiro, Ph.D., Lighting Research Center Light and Health Program director and principal investigator on the project, said in a statement. "Light stimulus travels through the retina, the light-sensitive nerve tissue lining the back wall of the eye, to reach the master clock in the brain. However, a combination of age-related changes in the eye and a more sedentary lifestyle may reduce the amount of light stimulus reaching an older person's retina, therefore reducing the amount of light for the circadian system."

Figueiro carried out her research with LRC scientists Andrew Bierman, John Bullough, Ph.D., and Mark Rea, Ph.D.

Their paper detailing the study and titled "A Personal Light-Treatment Device for Improving Sleep Quality in the Elderly: Dynamics of Nocturnal Melatonin Suppression at Two Exposure Levels," was published in Chronobiology International, Volume 26 Issue 4, 726.

The National Institute on Aging supported the study through a Small Business Technology Transfer grant to Topbulb.com, LLC, a commercial and residential resource for light bulbs.