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.
Sleep ; Rhythm ; Sleep brand of diphenhydramine hydrochloride ; Old episode ; Morning

An attempt was made to correct variations in the measurement of total cholesterol levels in order to study year-by-year trends in the values of total cholesterol measured at our center as part of the mass health screening project.
The sutudy covered the period from 1979 to 1996.
In coming to grips with variations in the measurement, we used the month-specific means of in-house pooled serum, which is internal quality control serum. On the basis of. the in-house pooled serum, the use of which began in June 1993, we observed variations, while correcting variations between lots and computing the values of in-house pooled serum on one and the same level. Variations in the means of total cholesterol in the mass health screenings proved similar to those in the levels of measurement, suggesting that distortions in the measurement could be corrected. To compensate for the distortions, we computed conversion factors so that the vallues of the in-house pooled serum observed at one and the same level could be compatible with the levels of secondary certified reference material for the measurement of serum lipids and then used the factors to correct the age-specific means of total cholesterol recoreded in each year's mass health screenings.
The year-by-year trends in the values of total cholesterol were such that the period of 18 years witnessed a rise of about 10mg/dl among men and about 6mg/dl among women in the age bracket of 29 and under, about 18-20mg/dl among men and about 16-17mg/dl among women in that of 30-59, and about 10-13mg/dl both among men and women in that of 60 and over. There were signs that the pace of rises from 1991 on was slower than during the 1981-1990 period.

Backgraund/Aim/Method: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious life-threatening disease. When HCC is advanced, moderate to severe pain is frequently found due to bone metastasis, requiring the administration of opioids. However, HCC develops in cirrhotic liver in most cases those are decreased in drug metabolism. Careful monitoring is therefore required when opioids are administered to patients with cirrhosis or HCC because guidelines about the administration of opioids are not established in Japan. In this report, we retrospectively analyzed cases treated by opioids and discussed about problems in current opioid treatment for advanced HCC cases. Results: The median duration of opioid treatment is about two months, and seems to be prolonged in cases with treatment of HCC. Prophylaxes for hepatic encephalopathy were done in about 10% of cases, and hepatic encephalopathy was developed in about 40% of cases after opioid treatment. Conclusion: In administration of opioids for advanced HCC, we should consider the onset of hepatic encephalopathy and make an effort to prevent it.