Research has suggested that exposure to light without blue wavelengths may be beneficial to patients in psychiatric units.
A study in the academic journal PLOS Medicine evaluated an upgrade to LED undertaken at St Olav’s Hospital in Østmarka, east of Trondheim, Norway.
The hospital in 2017 built a new acute psychiatric unit, with two identical hospital wards.
Both wards had the same staffing levels, layout, and facilities, but have different evening light environments. One has ‘normal’ standard light and one with ‘blue-blocked light’, where blue wavelengths are absent.
Lighting manufacturer Glamox supplied connected LED downlights, recessed ceiling lighting, suspended luminaires, wall-mounted luminaires and outdoor lighting for the building.
The study in PLOS Medicine randomly allocated 476 patients admitted for acute inpatient psychiatric care to either the ward with a blue-blocked evening light environment or the ward with a standard light environment.
All patients received the same standard of care, had the same length of stay, and were admitted for a median length of four days.
The study, Glamox has argued, “gives unique insights into the benefits of optimised lighting conditions for this group of patients”.
The researchers wrote: “We observed that patients admitted to the blue-blocked light environment had additional clinical improvement and displayed less aggressive behaviour during admission.”
While the treatment did not affect the number of days that patients were admitted, it suggested that the light therapy could “have clinically significant benefits without increasing side effects, without reducing patient satisfaction or requiring additional clinical staff”.
Doctors or nurses can manually control the light for each patient from a screen. A control system allows doctors to manage the light therapy for each patient or area in the department.
The study also argued that “…these benefits, coupled with the absence of side effects and the low intensity of the intervention, indicate that there is a reasonable case for broader adoption of this strategy, particularly in new units where the lighting system is being installed for the first time and is not replacing previous systems.”
“Although there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, we have developed lighting for use in different environments, such as healthcare institutions, schools, offices, and industry. Our lighting technology is used to help promote natural sleep patterns for patients in hospitals through to helping students concentrate in the classroom,” said Anders Bru, concept manager, human-centric lighting at Glamox.
Image: Glamox, showing two rooms at the hospital, top, with blue-block lighting and, below, without
