Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

Standing Balance And Spatiotemporal Aspects Of Gait Are Impaired Upon Nocturnal Awakening In Healthy Late Middle-Aged And Older Adults, Amanda L. Mcbean, Raymond P. Najjar, Ronald A. Schuchard, Courtney D. Hall, Cheng-Ann Wang, Ban Ku, Joseph M. Furman

ETSU Faculty Works

Study Objectives: Nocturnal awakenings may constitute a unique risk for falls among older adults. We describe differences in gait and balance between presleep and midsleep testing, and whether changes in the lighting environment during the midsleep testing further affect gait and balance.

Methods: Twenty-one healthy, late middle-aged and older (64.7 ± 8.0 y) adults participated in this repeated-measures design consisting of four overnight laboratory stays. Each night, participants completed baseline visual acuity, gait, and balance testing. After a 2-h sleep opportunity, they were awakened for 13 min into one of four lighting conditions: very dim white light (< 0.5 lux); dim white light (∼28.0 lux); dim orange light (∼28.0 lux); and white room-level light (∼200 lux). During this awakening, participants completed the same sequence of testing as at baseline.

Results: Low-contrast …