Lighting in Design Q1 2020

Lighting for a healing environment

Lighting plays an important role in healthcare, improving both the patient experience and the staff’s ability to provide the required level of care. Not only a sustainable choice, LED lighting can enhance the care environment and reduce costs by saving energy and improving operational efficiency.

L ight influences our health and well-being more than we know. In clinics and hospitals, many areas exist with insufficient daylight or even none at all.This is why, especially for patients needing to spend a lot of time in hospitals, their ‘inner clock’ may lose its sense of balance, in turn causing restlessness. Back in 2006, Anjali Joseph, Ph.D. published a paper, “The Impact of Light on Outcomes in Health- care Settings” forThe Center for Health Design. Her objective was to identify the mechanisms by which light impacts human health and performance and review the literature linking light (daylight and artificial light) with health outcomes in healthcare settings. Her key findings, withwhichwe are these days all au fait , were that light impacts human health and per- formance by enabling performance of visual tasks, controlling the body’s circadian system, affecting mood and perception, and by enabling critical chemi-

cal reactions in the body. Studies show that higher light levels are linked with better performance of complex visual tasks and light requirements increase with age. By controlling the body’s circadian system, light impacts outcomes in healthcare settings by reducing depression among patients, decreasing length of stay in hospitals, improving sleep and cir- cadian rhythm, lessening agitation among dementia patients, easing pain, and improving adjustment to night-shift work among staff. The presence of windows in the workplace and access to daylight have been linked with increased satisfaction with the work environment. Further, exposure to light is critical for vitamin D metabolism in the human body. Light exposure is also used as a treatment for neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia. She concluded that the adequate and appropri- ate exposure to light is critical for health and well- being of patients and staff in healthcare settings. A

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LiD Q1 - 2020