SynthesisAmerican journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias
The Effects of Light Therapy on Sleep, Agitation and Depression in People With Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Synthesis in American journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for older adults with dementia: An umbrella review.International journal of nursing sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Ocular light exposure interventions for sleep, circadian rhythms, rest-activity cycles, mood, and cognitive function in older adults: An Overview of Cochrane and non-Cochrane Systematic Reviews.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of light therapy on insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2024Pooled it
- The impact of bright light therapy on non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Biodynamic lighting versus bright light effects on rest-activity rhythm and night-time sleep in nursing homes residents with dementia.BMC geriatrics · 2026Trial
- Agitation in dementia: Evidence-based consensus recommendations.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2026Review
- Bright Light Therapy in Psychiatric Disorders: Mechanisms, Clinical Procedures and Evidence.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Circadian Rhythm Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Bidirectional Perspective and Therapeutic Potential.Nature and science of sleep · 2025Review
- Investigating the effects of indoor lighting on measures of brain health in older adults: protocol for a cross-over randomized controlled trial.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Protocol for a co-design study for the development of a chronotherapeutic mobile health behaviour change intervention targeting light exposure among older adults.F1000Research · 2024Article
- Brain FADE syndrome: the final common pathway of chronic inflammation in neurological disease.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- 35 years of light treatment for mental disorders in the Netherlands.Annals of medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the effects of light therapy on the alleviation of sleep disturbances, agitation and depression in people with dementia.
methodsA search was performed in PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, for studies published between 2000 and 2021.
resultsA total of 4315 articles were screened. Sixteen articles were eligible for this review and 11 randomized controlled studies were included in the meta-analysis. Light therapy had a significant effect on reducing the number of awakenings in sleep (
conclusionLight therapy appeared to be more effective in terms of alleviating sleep disturbances, rather than reducing agitation and depression, but its long-term effects remain unclear.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.