Lansing Sun

Michigan State University (MSU) Researchers have found that personalized time for light therapy improved breast cancer survivors’ sleep.

According to a press release, researchers were using light therapy to help reset sleep schedules for Alzheimer’s patients. Light therapy could be used to affect a patient's circadian rhythm which is the cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep and resets every 24 hours.

Horng-Shiuann Wu, an associate professor in the College of Nursing thought that light therapy could help her cancer patients. 

“My patients were tired during the day, but they didn’t sleep well at night,” Wu said, according to the press release. “I noticed that fatigue and sleep disturbance were closely related; they negatively affect cancer patients but we didn’t have a solution for them.”

Cancer can disrupt a patient's circadian rhythm and fatigue and disrupted sleep patterns can continue even after patients have completed treatment and are in remission.

“We know that cancer messes with patients’ circadian rhythms,” Wu said, according to the press release. “My hunch is that we could reset a patient’s circadian rhythm with light therapy.”

According to the press release, cancer patients had to wear a light therapy visor for 30 minutes a day for two weeks. Treatment times were tailored to each patient and applied near the times of day that each patient needed to sleep. 

“If you are exposed to the light during the wrong time, it will make your circadian rhythm disruption worse,” Wu said. “I customized the time for each patient so I can produce the effect in the right direction (going to bed earlier or later).”