What question did this study set out to answer?

To systematically evaluate the effects of bright light therapy on non-motor symptoms in individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

March 6, 2026Open Access

The impact of bright light therapy on non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Key Points

To systematically evaluate the effects of bright light therapy on non-motor symptoms in individuals with Parkinson’s disease.
Conducted a systematic search in various medical databases for relevant studies.
Extracted data and screened literature by two researchers.
Evaluated risk of bias using RoB2 and ROBINS-I tools.
Analyzed data using RevMan5.4 and Stata 18.0.
Bright light therapy significantly improves nighttime sleep compared to dim light.
Therapeutic effects on depression, anxiety, fatigue, cognition, and quality of life are not better than dim light.
The distance of the light source affects the efficacy of bright light therapy on sleep.

Abstract

Background The non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s patients seriously affect their quality of life. This meta-analysis intended to systematically examine the beneficial effect of bright light therapy (BLT) on non-motor symptoms in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, Ovid Medline, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang VIP and CBM to comprehensively collect RCTS and NRCTS relevant to BLT for Parkinson’s disease. Data extraction and literature screening were carried out separately by two researchers, and used the RoB2 tool and ROBINS-I tool to evaluate the risk of bias for the two types of studies, respectively. Software such as RevMan5.4 and Stata 18.0 were used to analyze the data. Results Compared with dim light, BLT has a considerable benefit in improving the nighttime sleep of people with Parkinson’s disease. However, its therapeutic effects on depression, anxiety, exhaustion, cognition, sleep quality and quality of life are not superior to those of dim light. Moreover, the distance of the light source will alter the therapeutic effect of BLT on nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness. Results Compared with dim light, BLT has a considerable benefit in improving the nighttime sleep of people with PD. However, its therapeutic effects on depression, anxiety, fatigue, cognition, sleep quality and quality of life are not superior to those of dim light. Moreover, the distance of the light source will alter the therapeutic effect of BLT on nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness. Conclusion BLT can be used to treat the non-motor symptoms of PD and may become a practical option for home self-management. However, the ideal therapy parameters (such as intensity, distance, cycle, etc.) still need further research. Systematic review registration https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251047102 , identifier (CRD420251047102).

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