In-home Light Therapy for Fatigue and Sleep Disturbance Following Acquired Brain Injury

Fatigue and sleep disturbance are debilitating problems following traumatic brain injury and stroke. We aimed to alleviate these problems with in-home light therapy in a randomised controlled trial, with 24 individuals with brain injury. We installed a dynamic 24-hour light intervention for 8 weeks, comparing it with participants’ usual lighting. Whilst not significantly impacting fatigue, the intervention reduced participants’ sleep disturbance and insomnia symptoms, improved reaction time and time spent in daily productive activity. This world-first trial suggests a personalised home-based light therapy may offer an effective, safe and long-term therapy for alleviating sleep disturbance in individuals with brain injury.