Leppämäki Sami, Meesters Ybe, Haukka Jari, Lönnqvist Jouko, Partonen Timo
Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
BMC Psychiatry. 2003 Oct 27;3:14. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-3-14.
Morning light exposure administered as simulated dawn looks a promising method to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, but it may moreover help with resetting the inaccurate organisation of body clock functions relative to sleep occurring in winter among people in general. Disturbances in sleep patterns are common and may compromise wellbeing even in the short term. Our hypothesis was that simulated dawn could improve the subjective quality of sleep during winter.
A community-based trial with 100 volunteer subjects provided with dawn simulators. Study period lasted for eight weeks, and subjects used the dawn simulators for two weeks at a time, each subject acting as his own control (ABAB-design). Main outcome measure was subjective quality of sleep recorded each morning with Groningen Sleep Quality Scale.
77 subjects completed the trial. Quality of sleep improved while subjects were using dawn simulator-devices (p = 0.001). The treatment became beneficial after six days' use of dawn simulator, but the effect did not last after the use was ceased.
Dawn simulation may help to improve the subjective quality of sleep, but the benefits are modest. Further research is needed to verify these findings and to elucidate the mechanism by which dawn simulation acts on the sleep-wake pattern.
以模拟黎明的方式进行晨光照耀似乎是一种治疗季节性情感障碍的有前景的方法，但此外，它可能有助于重置一般人群中冬季睡眠时生物钟功能的不准确组织。睡眠模式紊乱很常见，甚至在短期内也可能损害健康。我们的假设是，模拟黎明可以改善冬季的主观睡眠质量。
一项针对100名志愿者的社区试验，为他们提供黎明模拟器。研究期持续八周，受试者每次使用黎明模拟器两周，每个受试者作为自己的对照（ABAB设计）。主要结局指标是每天早晨用格罗宁根睡眠质量量表记录的主观睡眠质量。
77名受试者完成了试验。在受试者使用黎明模拟器设备期间，睡眠质量有所改善（p = 0.001）。使用黎明模拟器六天后治疗开始有益，但停止使用后效果并未持续。
模拟黎明可能有助于改善主观睡眠质量，但益处不大。需要进一步研究来验证这些发现，并阐明模拟黎明作用于睡眠-觉醒模式的机制。
