Helping Old People with Sleep-Wake Rhythm Disorders
10.2185/jjrm.54.762
- Author:
Kyoko OZAKI
;
Yasuko KAWAI
;
Mayumi KOKUBO
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Sleep;
Rhythm;
Sleep brand of diphenhydramine hydrochloride;
Old episode;
Morning
- From:Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine
2005;54(5):762-766
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
-
Abstract:
Insufficient nocturnal sleep often triggers off various forms of psychosomatic diseases in the aged. The result is that we turn to medication. However, nurses and caregivers should try to seek other ways to cope with the situation without depending on drugs so that the old people could lead a safe and comfortable life. Not a few users of our facility suffer from circadian rhythm sleep disorders in addition to cerebrovascular disease, senile dementia and other impairments. They are asleep during the daytime and awake by night. Homa 1) says one of the principal causes of sleep-wake rhythm disorders is inadequate environmental light. We were also interested in the study by Mito et al. that sleep disorders were ameliorated by sunbathing because sunlight helps restore the damaged adjustment function of the biological clock. Hama et al. have observed that two-hour exposure to light stimulation (over 25,000 Lux) in the morning is effective in adjusting sleep-wake rhythm. Based on these observations, we tried experiments in our facility. This paper is a report of our findings thus far obtained about the benefit of the morning sunlight.
