Chemotherapy creates sleep disturbances in a large number of women with breast cancer. What can women do to improve their sleep without having to pop another pill?

We found a study that examined the effects of bright light therapy, which has been said to improve sleep quality sleep latency and medication use for women undergoing chemotherapy.

Here is what the study found . . .

The sample was composed of 13 women, ages 35 to 70 all of whom had been diagnosed with stage I to IIIA breast cancer. All the women had also been scheduled to receive at least four cycles of adjuvant or neoadjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy. The assessment of the sleep quality was determined by the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. The women were randomly separated into two groups. Eight women were in the bright white light group, while the remaining five were in the dim red light group. Both groups were instructed to sit in front of the light box for 30 minutes each morning during their chemotherapy cycles.

The bright white light group showed overall improvement in sleep quality, sleep latency and medication while the dim red light groups remained stagnant.

Effects of Bright Light Therapy on Sleep Quality in Women Undergoing Chemotherapy: Preliminary Results by M. Rissing, V. Trofimenko, L. Natarajan, S. Lawton, M. Conejo, J. Chuang, M. Pressman, and S. Ancoli-Israel was presented at Sleep 2007, the 21st annual meeting of the Assocation Professional Sleep Professionals Societies, LLC.