Dawn Simulation and Postural Hypotension

VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Status and phase

Completed

Phase 4

Conditions

Orthostatic Hypotension

Treatments

Device: Light

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT02632318

IRB-36269

Details and patient eligibility

About

One of the most physiologically demanding things that older people do every day is to get up in the morning. After spending a night laying flat, where the blood distributes evenly across the body, when they stand in the morning (and the blood rushes to their feet), their cardiovascular system may not be able to compensate and maintain blood flow to the brain. This phenomenon is known as orthostatic or postural hypotension. The investigators have found in a group of young individuals that use of a dawn-simulation light that gradually wakes the brain is able to increase cardiovascular tone prior to arising. The goal of this experiment is to determine whether this dawn simulation light is able to increase cardiovascular tone in older adults such that they would have reduced or absent postural hypotension when they awaken in the morning. This would greatly reduce the risks of falls and their associated morbidities in older adults.

Enrollment

35 patients

Sex

All

Ages

55 to 85 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

History of falls or dizziness at exit from bed in the morning (at least two incidents in the past year)
At least 20/200 corrected visual acuity
Stable health
Normal hearing

Exclusion criteria