2023-08-14 11:13:54
To reduce worsening of symptoms in the dark… Noise and blue light blocking, proper lighting required
Enter 2023.08.14 20:10 Hits 3 Enter 2023.08.14 20:10 Edit 2023.08.14 13:44 Hits 3
Dementia patients should avoid blue light (blue light) at night. Dementia symptoms can get much worse. [사진=게티이미지뱅크]To protect dementia patients whose symptoms worsen at night, blue light (blue light) and noise emitted from computer monitors, TV screens, and mobile phone LCD screens must be blocked. In addition, it is good for patients to keep a regular schedule such as meal and sleep time, and to use moderately bright lighting.
Heather Parris, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the US, said, “There are not a few patients with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, whose symptoms get noticeably worse at night. This phenomenon is called ‘sundowning’. It is better to block the blue light that encourages this phenomenon from the patient.” This is from an interview with the American health and medicine media ‘Medical News Today’.
According to Assistant Professor Parris, photosensitive cells that control circadian rhythms are located in the retina. Photosensitivity is the property of being sensitive to light. These cells communicate with the brain through the optic nerve, but a very light-sensitive protein called ‘melanopsin’ is in the retina.
In general, blue light creates ‘melanopsin’ and is likely to disrupt sleep and circadian rhythms. A recent study showed that the level of melanopsin in the retina of dementia patients, which causes the sunset phenomenon, is greatly increased.
Blue light makes light-sensitive ‘melanopsin’ protein
According to a study from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, people with dementia experience greater confusion, anxiety, agitation and mood swings when the sun goes down because of photosensitivity. These results were recently published in Frontiers to Aging Neuroscience.
Assistant Professor Parris said, “Patients with dementia become very sensitive to light due to changes in the retina.” The circadian cycle disorder of immune cells in the brains of dementia patients causes more amyloid beta protein to accumulate in the brain, aggravating the symptoms.
Dr. Alexander Rafa, a psychiatrist at the ‘Rehab Clinics Group’ in the United States, said, “The sunset phenomenon causes great pain to the person concerned and the caregiver. In particular, when patients feel confused and agitated, many problems arise around them.”
When the sun goes down, the safety of patients and those around them may be threatened. This is why it is so important to keep a patient’s schedule consistent, to engage in calm activities, to minimize noise, and to ensure adequate lighting.
In the middle or late stages of dementia, symptoms such as sleep disturbance, forgetting to eat, and side effects of certain medications may appear throughout. All of these are related to the sunset phenomenon.
There are two main causes of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, which have been identified so far. accumulation of amyloid beta protein and accumulation of tau protein.
The research team hypothesized that sleep disorders might occur if these proteins accumulated in the brain and impaired brain function. In addition, he was interested in why the sleep and circadian rhythms of dementia patients are disrupted. I thought that sleep disorders occur in the brain, but following ruling out various causes in the brain, I turned my attention to the retina.
There are special cells in the retina called ‘intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells’. These cells are sensitive to light, but are not used for vision, but rather to alert the brain that it is daytime.
The research team found that there are many of these special cells in the retina of mice suffering from dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease. It was also confirmed that there are amyloid beta protein and tau protein in the retina of dementia patients, and that the retinal blood barrier is destroyed.
The research team concluded that dementia may affect the retina, not the brain. “Phototherapy can be a solution to reducing the sundowning phenomenon in dementia patients,” said Dr. Ferris.
To develop phototherapy, the research team plans to test whether it can prevent worsening of symptoms by reducing the time of exposure to light or changing the wavelength of light at a specific time.
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