What’s better than a good night’s sleep? In my opinion, waking up feeling refreshed is one of the nicest feelings. But for patients with Parkinson’s disease, it can be difficult to achieve this. Parkinson’s Disease News notes that sleep issues are extremely common for patients with this disorder. However, a new study in Scientific Reports found that bright light therapy could be the answer to providing patients with a full, hearty night of sleep.
Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive central nervous system disorder which impacts and restricts movement. Although it starts with mild symptoms, such as light tremors, its fifth and final stage is characterized by a nearly complete lack of movement. Parkinson’s disease symptoms do not usually develop before 50 years old.
This condition occurs when brain neurons die or are damaged, lowering levels of dopamine. The stages of Parkinson’s include:
- One: Mild symptoms, light tremors on one side of the body.
- Two: Noticeable symptoms, tremors and muscle stiffness/rigidity on both sides of the body.
- Three: Loss of balance, slowed or restricted movement.
- Four: Severe symptoms, patient cannot live independently.
- Five: Loss of movement, ability to walk. Hallucinations.
Symptoms include:
- Muscle stiffness and rigidity
- Speech changes, such as slurring or stuttering
- Hallucinations and dementia
- Sleep disturbances or insomnia
- Tremors, shaking in the hands
Learn more about Parkinson’s disease.
Bright Light Therapy
What is bright light therapy?
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) describes bright light therapy as a treatment which resets one’s internal clock. Basically:
your body has an internal clock that tells it when it is time to be asleep and when it is time to be awake. Your clock controls the “circadian rhythms” in your body, [including] body temperature, alertness and the daily cycle of many hormones.
For people with Parkinson’s disease, or sleep disorders, the circadian rhythms are thrown off. So, instead of feeling alert and awake in the morning, and tired at night, someone might feel tired during the day. However, the issue is that it isn’t always okay to nap during school or work.
Bright light therapy exposes patients to some sort of bright light. There are multiple types of bright light therapy, including:
- Light visors. Much like a regular visor, this sits on the head and over the eyes. These can vary in strength.
- Light boxes. A light box holds various tubes that are extremely bright when turned on. Patients put the light box on top of a table or desk (anywhere it can be easily seen). During treatments, patients sit about 2 feet away from the box and perform some sort of other activity.
- Desk lamps. These are similar to light boxes, but can be used more easily in offices or other similar environments.
- Dawn simulators. These mimic sunrises by gradually increases a room’s brightness, or dimming to mimic a sunset. As a result, these can be used during waking up or falling asleep.
The Study
Although previous studies showed the benefit of bright light therapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease, researchers wanted to see if they could replicate this in a larger group. Researchers followed 16 patients with Parkinson’s disease:
- 100% (16 patients) received dopaminergic therapy, or therapies that regulate dopamine levels.
- 25% (4 patients) were male.
- 75% (12 patients) were female.
- Patient ages ranged from 52 to 80.
Patients partook in bright light therapy for 1 hour per day over a 3-month period. This was done at night. Researchers measured patient sleep with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Parkinson Disease Sleep Scale 2 (PDSS-2).
Ultimately, while the ESS showed no changes, the PDSS-2 scores showed sleep quality improvement. Patients experienced less muscle and limb pain, as well as less need to urinate throughout the night.
Next, researchers split participants into 2 groups based on age. They believe that this is based on circadian genes like Per3, Nr1d1, and Nr1d2. Researchers analyzed how these genes were expressed in study participants, and noted that expression changed after bright light therapy.
Moving forward, bright light therapy may become more accessible. For example, one bright light device was given breakthrough device designation by the FDA.
