Development and Applications of Wearable Ambient Light Detection System: the Effect of Light Therapy and Seasonal Ambient Light for Sleep Quality, Depression Scale, Brain Function and Structure for Elderly with Mild to Moderate Dementia and Caregive

As Taiwan steps into an aged society, the prevalence of dementia has increased in Taiwan elder populations. Patients with dementia are commonly suffered from sleep disturbance and depression, known to be related to the shift of their circadian rhythms. Sleep problem deteriorates the patient’s compromised functioning and quality of life and becomes a significant cause of stress and burden to patients’ caregivers. Previous studies suggested that light therapy is one of the effective interventions to manage depression and insomnia. In this study, we will develop a wearable ambient light detection system and apply it to the patients with mild or moderate dementia who will involve the intervention of light therapy. By collecting the multi-dimensional measurements, including illumination exposure detected from our device, sleep quality record, assessment of depression scale, neurotransmitter level in blood and saliva, and MRI data, we could have better understandings not only to the effect of light therapy for functional and structural brain network, but also to the interaction of endocrine, sleep quality, emotion and dementia progression. Moreover, we will apply our device to detect the illumination exposure of the elder patients with subjective cognitive decline and their caregivers in community and address the effect of seasonal variations in illumination exposure on human endocrine, sleep quality, emotion and functional and structural brain network. Also, we would like to explore whether these effects can be a risk factor to transform the elderly with subjective cognitive decline into mild cognitive impairment and the interaction between the patients and their caregiver. Completing this project, we will be able to provide an optimal daily illumination exposure for the elderly and the patients with dementia to improve their sleep quality, emotion, and circadian rhythm. We expect that these results could be further applied to developing the smart home lighting control system in near future.

Project ID:PB10507-2925
External Project ID:MOST105-2221-E182-049