Every morning and evening, Jan Wielinga wears special glasses made in Tilburg for half an hour. He turns on the blue LED lights with a button. That's all. But it allows the man with Parkinson's disease to do what he loves most: running, and this Sunday he'll be competing in the Tilburg Ten Miles. And the glasses also help with things like the winter blues and jet lag.
"The glasses help me sleep better and more deeply, which gives me more energy," says 63-year-old Jan Wielinga from Bunschoten. So much energy that he can take up his favorite hobby of running again. "Although I call it jogging. I used to be a real runner; I ran marathons and half marathons, until I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease six years ago." This disease causes accelerated death of nerve cells in a specific area of the brain. One of the symptoms of the disease is poor sleep.
A pioneer of this form of light therapy is researcher Toine Schoutens. Back in the 1980s, he investigated whether light could be effective against the disruption of the biological clock caused by irregular working hours. This laid the foundation for the Propeaq light glasses used by Wielinga.
Research among 31 Parkinson's patients in collaboration with Radboud University in 2019 showed that three quarters had positive experienced results. "They slept better, their mood and movement improved," says Schoutens. The results of a follow-up study by neurology professor Bas Bloem will be published soon, and Schoutens believes they are promising.
This is how the glasses work
But what exactly do the light glasses do? "They mimic part of natural daylight," he says. "The blue daylight synchronizes your biological clock every morning and provides an energy boost. You're less sleepy during the day." By placing orange lenses in the frames in the evening, blue ambient light is blocked, which stimulates the production of the night hormone melatonin. "That helps you sleep better."
The glasses (cost: €199) were developed by the Tilburg-based company Chrono Eyewear and are used by top athletes, among others, to combat jet lag. A significant number of the Dutch team wore these light glasses during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
According to Schoutens, people who suffer from the winter blues due to a lack of daylight in the autumn will benefit from the device. He points to the more common light therapy lamps, which are often used to combat the winter blues. "These glasses do the same thing, only you can walk around with them."
Jan Wielinga will be running again next Sunday, during the 5K race of the Ten Miles. It will be his first race in years. And? "I'm convinced I'll make it. Although I'm a bit nervous about other people seeing me run. My motor skills are a bit different because of Parkinson's."
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