Lights out!
Researchers say that exposure to bright outside lights at night could increase your odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease more than other risk factors, especially for young people.
“We show that in the US there is a positive association between [Alzheimer’s] prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in those under the age of 65,” said Robin Voigt-Zuwala, an associate professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Nightly light pollution — a modifiable environmental factor — may be an important risk factor.”
Voigt-Zuwala’s team studied maps of light pollution — such as streetlights, roadway lighting and illuminated signs — and divided the lower 48 states into five groups, from lowest to highest nighttime light intensity.
Artificial light at night can disrupt the body’s 24-hour biological clock and ruin sleep. Sleep deprivation and insomnia are associated with cognitive decline.
For seniors, Alzheimer’s prevalence had stronger ties to light pollution than risk factors such as alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression and obesity.
But diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke outweighed light pollution in that age group.
For people under 65, higher nighttime light intensity was connected to Alzheimer’s more than any other risk factor examined in the study.
The researchers are unsure why younger people may be particularly sensitive to the effects of nighttime light.
They theorized it could be their genetic makeup or that they are more likely to live in urban areas and have lifestyles that frequently expose them to outside light.
The study authors recommend using blackout curtains or an eye mask to block harmful light.
Their findings were published Friday in Frontiers in Neuroscience.
Though they didn’t study indoor light, the researchers say blue light, like from digital devices, has the greatest effect on sleep.
They suggest using blue light filters, swapping bulbs to warm light and installing dimmers in the home.
Nearly 7 million Americans have been diagnosed with dementia — Alzheimer’s is the most common form of the syndrome.
The new study follows recent research that found that where you live may affect your odds of getting a dementia diagnosis because of healthcare access.
