A review of integrative dynamic lighting and associated well-being impact for people living with dementia: Integrative lighting and well-being for people with dementia

Integrative lighting considers light for both visual and non-visual impact and can therefore benefit human health and well-being. More specifically, it can benefit circadian-related well-being, an umbrella term which within dementia cohorts considers factors such as sleep, rest-activity, mood, agitation and activities of daily living. As people living with dementia experience disruptions to their circadian rhythms and spend large amounts of time indoors, the understanding of how integrative interior lighting could influence their body clock could help support their well-being. A review of 18 studies found that papers are difficult to compare due to unsystematic study designs and reporting of study characteristics, light characteristics and participant characteristics. The findings at most imply that indoor integrative lighting could be beneficial to these aspects of well-being. This review finds suggestion that for this cohort there may be a relationship between colour variation and mood and agitation, alongside a relationship between intensity variation and sleep, and that the influence on rest-activity may be more unpredictable. These findings are inferred and due to heterogeneous study designs they are inconclusive. The outcome of this review therefore recommends future studies that follow systematic checklists for study designs which seek to test these inferred hypotheses within this cohort.