The activity monitors which measured the participants' movements show a rather noticeable decline in agitated behavior during the morning hours, but no change or higher agitated behavior in the evening for both conditions. The results of the association with circadian rhythm, sleep disturbances, hormone levels, and a person's characteristics have not been analyzed yet. One possible reason the results of this study conflict with prior studies is that prior studies did not include a placebo condition, whereas this study did. Thus, one question to ask is whether the improvement of agitated behaviors was due to light therapy, or to the additional attention the participants received from research assistants or from being observed by the research staff. Future studies are needed to address this and further questions related to agitation and sleep.
Agitation is a very difficult situation for families and nursing home workers.
That's what my goal was. If researchers found that light therapy generally works, home caregivers and nursing home staff would have a relatively inexpensive, non-invasive, and easy treatment to improve agitation in people with dementia. I would think that people could put it in their homes and perhaps have a quieter, more manageable environment.