A 24-hour lighting framework for hospital rooms

One key factor in the design of healthy hospital environments is lighting. It has been demonstrated that access to daylight and pleasant outdoor views can decrease medication intake, increase satisfaction, and shorten the length of stay in post-operatory patients. However, exposure to lighting can vary between patients depending on their activity levels, proximity to windows, and the overall quality of lighting at different timepoints. Evaluating light exposure at a patient's level is needed to define effective design strategies for fast recovery. Light is also a crucial factor to sustain workers' alertness at night. High illuminance and blue-enriched lighting can improve the subjective symptoms of night shift work, such as vigor and sleepiness, but it can worsen workers' performance and disturb circadian clock responses from patients whilst sleeping. Addressing shift worker's personal light requirements for performance at night is needed to sustain their alertness whilst mitigating sleep disturbance to patients. This project aims to test the hypothesis that personal exposure to different light conditions over time will improve sleep, activity levels, and perceived recovery in patients. This project also aims to test the hypothesis that electric light in hospital rooms could be adjusted to better respond to the performance requirements from night shift workers whilst reducing circadian disturbance for patients at night. By testing these hypotheses, this project contributes to developing an 24-hour, occupant-centered lighting framework for hospital rooms. The project is structured in two phases. Phase 1 evaluates current luminous conditions in hospital rooms and objective and self-reported responses from patients and nightshift workers. The findings of Phase 1 will be later tested in a lighting intervention with health workers on a simulation room (Phase 2). A variation to this ethics document will be submitted once the data from Phase 1 is retrieved and analyzed.