ely delayed the sleep/wake clock of Alzheimer's patients was, leading them to give the therapy at the wrong time of day. Harper says that studies on the use of melatonin and light therapy in Alzheimer's patients should be done to see how effective they could be. During such a study, the sleep/wake cycle of each participant should be determined individually by measuring their changes in core body temperature over a 24-hour period, and the timing of therapy should be customized to each individual. O'Malley's one concern about using these tools to reset the sleep/wake cycles of Alzheimer's patients is that some studies show that the part of the brain that is responsible for those cycles actually deteriorates during Alzheimer's disease. It's possible that at some point there will be too few cells left in that part of the brain to respond to melatonin or light therapy. An important strategy in the future, therefore, is to try to stabilize the cell loss that occurs in that part of the brain. ...
