BACKGROUND: Living with a diagnosis of dementia can involve managing certain behavioral and psychological symptoms. Alongside cognitive decline, this cohort expresses a suppression in melatonin production which can negatively influence their alignment of sleep or wake timings with the 24 hour day and night cycle. As a result, their circadian rhythms become disrupted. Since daylight has the capacity to stimulate the circadian rhythm and humans spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, research has shifted toward the use of indoor lighting to achieve this same effect. This type of lighting is programmed in a daylight-simulating manner; mimicking the spectral changes of the sun throughout the day. As such, this paper focuses on the use of a dynamic lighting and sensing technology used to support the circadian rhythm, behavioral and psychological symptoms, and well-being of people living with dementia.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand how dynamic lighting, as opposed to static lighting, may impact the well-being of those who are living with dementia.
METHODS: An ethically approved trial was conducted within a care home for people with dementia. Data were collected in both quantitative and qualitative formats using environmentally deployed radar sensing technology and the validated QUALIDEM (Quality of Life for People With Dementia) well-being scale, respectively. An initial 4 weeks of static baseline lighting was used before switching out for 12 weeks of dynamic lighting. Metrics were collected for 11 participants on mood, social interactions, agitation, sense of feeling, and sleep and rest-activity over a period of 16 weeks.
RESULTS: Dynamic lighting showed significant improvement with a moderate effect size in well-being parameters including positive affect (P=.03), social isolation (P=.048), and feeling at home (P=.047) after 5-10 weeks of dynamic lighting exposure. The results also highlight statistically significant improvements in rest-activity-related parameters of interdaily stability (P<.001), intradaily variation (P<.001), and relative amplitude (P=.03) from baseline to weeks 5-10, with the effect propagating for interdaily stability at weeks 10-16 as well (P<.001). Nonsignificant improvements are also noted for sleep metrics with a small effect size; however, the affect in agitation does not reflect this improvement.
CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic lighting has the potential to support well-being in dementia, with seemingly stronger influence in earlier weeks where the dynamic lighting initially follows the static lighting contrast, before proceeding to aggregate as marginal gains over time. Future longitudinal studies are recommended to assess the additional impact that varying daylight availability throughout the year may have on the measured parameters.
