Turning up the lights in the homes of elderly people could be an effective treatment for sleep problems, research on hamsters has revealed. Difficulty sleeping is one of the main reasons for visits to the doctor by people aged over 65, so the implications for public health are significant.
Stephany Biello of the University of Glasgow looked at ageing hamsters鈥� activity patterns to track changes in the functioning of their internal body clocks. In older animals, deterioration of the clock鈥檚 functioning caused increasingly disrupted sleep. 鈥淛ust like humans, they sleep badly, wake up earlier and nap a lot,鈥� says Biello.
The problem seems to be connected with getting light/dark signals from the eyes to the hypothalamus in the brain.
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In animals whose clock has only recently begun to deteriorate, Biello found that normal sleep could be restored simply by increasing light levels during the day. 鈥淭his has big implications for old people who don鈥檛 get outside much and so don鈥檛 see a lot of light,鈥� says Biello.
In very old hamsters, turning up the lights no longer works but Biello found that injections of brain-derived neural growth factor (BDNF) did restore clock function.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know why it鈥檚 working,鈥� says Biello. It may be improving nerve connections in the hypothalamus or increasing the strength of the light signal from the optic nerve, she suggests. Clive Coen, a body clock expert at King鈥檚 College, London, was excited by the findings. 鈥淚f BDNF works here it may be revamping other systems as well,鈥� he says.
Biello鈥檚 research was presented at the British Association鈥檚 Festival of Science in Glasgow.