The Impact of Dynamic Lighting on Sleep Timing and Duration for Hospitalised Patients

Mar 14, 2025Journal of sleep research

How Changing Light Affects When and How Long Hospital Patients Sleep

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Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Patients using a customised lighting system experienced a 160-minute advancement in their rest/wake activity phase.

Dynamic lighting provided blue-enriched light during the day and blue-depleted light in the evening.
Subjects in the customised lighting group had 66 minutes more overnight sleep compared to standard lighting.
Higher levels of morning alertness were reported in the intervention group (KSS score 3.8 vs. 4.9).
Evening alertness was also greater in patients with the customised lighting (KSS score 5.4 vs. 7.1).
The findings indicate that programmable lighting systems may enhance sleep quality in hospitalized patients.

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Poor sleep is common in hospitalised patients due to multiple factors, including disruption of the circadian rhythm. Few studies have examined programmable artificial lighting systems in hospital patient rooms, and few have achieved meaningful improvement in sleep. We sought to determine how novel dynamic lighting affects sleep timing and duration compared to standard hospital lighting. Patients were admitted to rooms on a cardiology unit with customised intervention or standard lighting. The lighting system delivered blue-enriched light during the day, a melanopic stimulus twice daily and blue-depleted light in the evening. Sleep/wake probability was measured in 30-s epochs using mattress sensors to capture sleep timing and nocturnal sleep duration. Subjective sleep duration and alertness were assessed with sleep diaries and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), respectively. A total of 87 patients were enrolled. Subjects experiencing customised lighting demonstrated significantly advanced rest/wake activity phase by 160 min and overall greater sleep probability. Overnight sleep duration (11 p.m.-7 a.m.) was 66 min greater in the lighting condition (266 vs. 200 min, p < 0.05). Patients in the intervention group reported higher levels of alertness during the morning (KSS score 3.8 vs. 4.9, p = 0.01) and evening (5.4 vs. 7.1, p = 0.01). A lighting system programmed to entrain the circadian rhythm and provide a daytime melanopic stimulus on a hospital unit was associated with advanced circadian phase, increased nocturnal sleep duration and increased perceived morning and evening alertness. These results suggest that dynamic lighting systems have the potential to improve sleep for hospitalised patients.

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The Impact of Dynamic Lighting on Sleep Timing and Duration for Hospitalised Patients

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