Studies among people with dementia demonstrated that the sleep quality and rhythm improves significantly when people are exposed to ambient bright light. Since almost half of the healthy older people also indicate to suffer from chronic sleep disorders, the question arises whether ambient bright light can be beneficial to healthy older people. Particularly the effect on sleep/wake rhythm in relation to the exposure to natural light is the focus. It was hypothesised that the sleep quality would be worse in winter due to a lower daylight dose than in summer due to the lower illuminance and exposure duration. A field study was conducted to examine the relationship between daylight exposure and sleep quality in 14 healthy older adults living independently in their own dwellings in the Netherlands. All participants were asked to take part of the study both during the summer period as well as during the winter period. Therefore, they had to wear an actigraph for five consecutive days which measured sleep, activity and light exposure. Results confirmed that people were significantly longer exposed to high illumination levels (>1000 lx) in summer than in winter. Sleep quality measures, however, did not differ significantly between summer and winter. A significant, positive correlation was found between exposure duration to high illuminance from daylight during the day and the sleep efficiency the following night in summer, implying that being exposed to high illuminance for a longer time period has a positive effect on sleep efficiency for the individual data. There was also a tendency of less frequent napping in case of longer exposure duration to light for both seasons. Sleep quality does not differ between summer and winter but is related to the duration of the exposure to bright light the day prior to the night. CC-BY Original article at http://solarlits.com/jd/5-14 http://dx.doi.org/10.15627/jd.2018.2 https://www.dehaagsehogeschool.nl/onderzoek/lectoraten/details/urban-ageing#over-het-lectoraat
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Employee burnout is an increasing global problem. Some countries, such as The Netherlands, diagnose and treat burnout as a medical condition. While deficient sleep has been implicated as the primary risk factor for burnout, the longest current sleep measurement of burnout individuals is 4 weeks; and no studies have measured sleep throughout the burnout process (i.e.: pre-burnout, burnout diagnosis, recovery time, and returning to work). During a 7 month longitudinal study on wearable technology use, 4 participants were diagnosed with (pre)burnout by their company doctor using the Maslach’s Burnout Inventory (MBI). Our study captured the participants’ sleep data including: sleep quality, number of awakenings, sleep duration, time awake, and amount of light sleep during the burnout and recovery process. One participant experienced a burnout diagnosis, recovery at home, and returning to work within the 7 months providing the first look at sleep trends during the entire burnout process. Our results show that the burnout participants experienced decreased sleep quality (n = 2), sleep duration (n = 2), and light sleep (n = 3). In contrast, a sample of 3 non-burnout participants sleep remained stable on all measures except for time awake for one participant. The results of this study answer past calls for longer analysis of sleep’s influence on burnout and highlight the vast opportunity to extend burnout research using the millions of active devices currently in use.
The need for care will increase in the coming years. Most people with a disability or old age receive support from an informal caregiver. Caring for a person with dementia can be difficult because of the BPSD (Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia). BPSD, including sleep disturbance, is an important factor for a higher care load. In this scoping review, we aim to investigate whether technology is available to support the informal caregiver, to lower the care burden, improve sleep quality, and therefore influence the reduction of social isolation of informal caregivers of people with dementia. A scoping review is performed following the methodological framework by Arksey and O'Mally and Rumrill et al., the scoping review includes scientific and other sources (unpublished literature, websites, reports, etc.). The findings of the scoping review shows that there are technology applications available to support the informal caregiver of a person with dementia. The technology applications mostly contribute to lower the care burden and/or improve sleep quality and therefore may contribute to reduce social isolation. The technology applications found target either the person with dementia, the informal caregiver, or both.
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