"The Snoezelen room at Southampton Estates is probably not what you would expect in the dementia wing of a facility for the elderly.    The flashing lights tall bubble tube and disco ball seem to say party more than therapy.    CHARLES FOX  Staff Photographer The devices in the Snoezelen room allow residents to make simple choices with immediate consequences. Press a blue button and the water in the bubble tube turns blue.    But Snoezelen supporters say rooms like this full of contraptions that wordlessly stimulate the senses have both a calming and pleasantly stimulating effect on people with cognitive disabilities. New research conducted at Southampton a retirement community owned by ACTS RetirementLife Communities lends some support to the idea.    Rochelle Robbins a psychologist at Holy Family University in Northeast Philadelphia found that residents with dementia who regularly spent time in the room were less agitated communicated more and needed less impromptu medication for behavior problems.    The devices in the room allow residents to make simple choices with immediate consequences. Press a blue button and the water in the bubble tube turns blue. Press another button and the patterns on a light board change. People can braid long fiberoptic strands attached to the wall and stroke them or just feel their weight.    Robbins thinks its calming to have some power over your environment. It gives people that sense of efficacy that I can touch this and get involved with this and no ones yelling at me to stop and I can have some effect on my environment.    Two Dutch therapists came up with the idea of Snoezelen pronounced snooze lin in the late s. Its a combination of the Dutch verbs snuffelen which is to seek out and explore and doezelen which is to relax. They experimented with simple environments that stimulated the senses of clients with intellectual disabilities. At first things were pretty low tech scent bottles musical instruments a fan blowing pieces of paper. Modern Snoezelen rooms have more bells and whistles including the light devices and massage chairs with builtin speakers projectors that display moving images on walls and aromatherapy dispensers.    Only one company New Jerseybased FlagHouse Inc. can distribute branded Snoezelen equipment in North America but its competitors sell what are more generically known as multisensory environments comfort rooms or tranquillity rooms.    A basic room costs about  said Carolyn Jackson who sells Snoezelen products for FlagHouse. You can get Snoezelen on a cart  devices you can take to a patients room  for under .    At first Snoezelen was used primarily with children with cognitive disabilities. Snoezelen rooms now can be found in schools hospitals and facilities for the mentally ill. Jackson said the company had had nursinghome customers since the mids. She estimates that  nursing homes have bought sensory supplies from her company. About eight nursing homes and  other facilities in this region have purchased Snoezelen rooms Jackson said. Others may have bought equipment piecemeal.    After holding steady during the recession sales are expected to rise by  percent this year. FlagHouse sold equipment for  rooms in the United States last year. Were not having to scratch around for business she said. Its really rolling in.    Despite the history Snoezelen is hardly a household name. Three major teaching hospitals in Philadelphia were unable to find experts who felt qualified to talk about it.    Jackson said research had been slim. The Dutch were adamant against research she said. They said Its recreation. Just leave it alone.     Snoezelen is more widely accepted in Europe and Israel adherents said but Americans have wanted more proof of its value. I just think we need a lot more controlled studies said Gillian Hotz codirector of the University of Miamis pediatric brain and spinal cord injury program.    Hotz did a small study in severely braininjured children that found their arousal levels rose after being in a multisensory room. She said the bubble tube could help improve visual tracking ability. A ball pit helps children who are spastic relax their muscles.    The pace of lights in the room can be changed to be more or less stimulating depending on what users need.    Holy Familys Robbins said previous studies had shown that the behavior of people with dementia could improve during a single session in a Snoezelen room but she wanted to see if there were longerlasting results.    Meanwhile ACTS Gerontological Research Institute was interested in trying unusual nondrug approaches to helping residents with dementia who had behavior problems or sundowning a tendency to become more confused and agitated at night said Elsie Norton the institutes managing director.    The study was small only  residents between  and last July. It was hard to get more Robbins said because of deaths and transfers. Study participants spent  to  minutes a week in the room for  weeks.    There were significant decreases in agitation scores after the study. The number of doses of drugs given to calm patients fell from  in the month before Snoezelen to  in the month after. The patients also had decreased depression scores.    One of the surprising findings was that the number of falls dropped from  in the month before patients entered the study to five in the month after.    Robbins hypothesizes that patients may have been steadier on their feet because they were taking fewer medications and were less agitated and more focused.    A side benefit of the room has been that grandkids love it and can have a better visit with their faltering grandparents because of it.    T.J. Tignor director of life enrichment for Southampton said he tailored the room experience to each resident. Some enjoy pictures of fish for example while others prefer farm animals. He doesnt turn everything on at once instead letting patients explore for themselves. Residents will let you know what they enjoy and what they do not he said.    Linda Messbauer a consultant in New York who helps design multisensory rooms and train people in their use said the experience had to be individualized to what the visitor likes and remembers. It has to be thought out she said. Its not just a room that you turn on and put people in.    She said she had seen rooms used as a place where staff would put a group of elderly people until they fell asleep. That makes her angry. Thats not stimulation toward life she said.    Staff members at Southampton sometimes take short breaks in the room. Robbins finds herself drawn to the fiberoptic spray which is sort of like a long plastic horse tail attached to the wall. She likes to pull her fingers through it and knead it. Its destressing for me she said.    ACTS is considering adding Snoezelen rooms at other facilities where space and funding would allow us to do that Norton said."