Dynamic white lighting to aid sleep and vision for persons living with dementia using off-the-shelf LED strips.

Abstract

Alzheimer disease and related dementias affect 15-20% of elderly people, and 60-70% of these suffer from sleep disturbances. Studies suggest that lighting can improve sleep. The key challenge is how to deliver light effectively. We have designed a lighting system that adjusts spectrum and irradiance on a 24-hour timetable to provide spatially uniform, shadow-free white light with CRI>85 and up to 1000 Lux for day vision and amber light for night vision. To aid sleep, melanopic illuminance varies over 3 orders of magnitude to enable strong suppression of melatonin in the morning/early afternoon, moderate suppression in the evening, and no suppression at night.