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Bright Light Therapy To Promote Sleep In Mothers Of Low-Birth-Weight Infants: A Pilot Study, Shih Yu "Sylvia" Lee, Dawn M. Aycock, Margaret F. Moloney

Nursing Faculty Publications

Having a low-birth-weight (LBW) infant in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can intensify a mother’s sleep disturbances due to both stress and the dim lighting in the ICU setting, which desynchronizes circadian rhythms. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effectiveness of a 3-week bright light therapy intervention on sleep and health outcomes of mothers with LBW infants in the NICU. Controlled stratified randomization was used to assign 30 mothers to a treatment or control group. Data were collected at pretreatment (second week postpartum) and after the 3-week intervention. Sleep data were assessed by wrist actigraph …