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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Smoking-behavior during pregnancy and the reliability of an interview were prospectively investigated. The tobacco-exposure was assessed a) by an intake interview b) by a smoking diary and c) by maternal thiocyanate and carboxy-hemoglobin concentrations. Of the 115 nulliparous women, 66 smoked (57.4%). Seventeen women (25.8%) quit and 39 women (59.1%) reduced smoking. Directly after intake, in the first week of the diary, significantly more cigarettes were smoked than stated during the intake interview. According to the diaries, the number of cigarettes increased during the first half of pregnancy. In the 24th week significantly more cigarettes were smoked than in the first week after intake. Also a significant increase of thiocyanate between the measurements at intake and in the 24th of amenorrhea was found. The maternal carboxy-hemoglobin levels did not significantly change during pregnancy. Investigators should be aware of changes in smoking behavior during pregnancy and the potential bias of self reported smoking behavior at the beginning of pregnancy. The tobacco-exposure should be assessed (anamnestic or biochemical) several times during pregnancy, anyway it should include the second half of pregnancy.
Wednesday 17th of January MediaLAB Amsterdam arranged LABFEST, a final expo where we could showcase our protypes and talk to people in the industry about our projects. We got a lot of nice feedback and are happy with the end-product we came up with. Quite a lot of people showed up and we were excited to talk to people about our prototype and the future possibilities of our Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy!
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