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This week we’re showcasing the scientists who presented their remarkable findings at the Innovators in Healthcare event last month.
Don’t bother with night-shift mode – just get some daylight
First up, Professor Russell Foster OBE, FRS with a timely reminder of why sleep matters for a Monday morning- and a brilliant description of the mechanisms involved: while the SCN may be the ‘master clock’, every single cell in your body and brain is telling the time too, delivering the right materials at the right time for optimal performance – unless of course, you derail that circadian cycle with insufficient light during the day and too much light at night. Foster debunks some myths about screen time too, pointing to research that shows that the night-shift setting on your phone makes absolutely no difference at all.
Listen to the full presentation here, read the transcript here and check out a selection of clips here.
Return on investment – falls, mistakes, suicidal ideation and staff affect
Harvard’s Professor Shadab Rahman is on a mission to improve outcomes for patients and staff alike. His research extends beyond the mechanisms of circadian entrainment to focus on outcomes that impact the bottom line, helping to make the business case for investing in lighting.
The numbers are compelling:
6% reduction in medical errors (and 33% reduction in high-severity errors), 43% reduction in falls, reduction in suicidal ideation and improvement in staff affect. Shadab is a brilliant speaker, clear, balanced and passionate. Listen to his presentation here, have a read and check the footnotes for the academic papers he references here– and some clips are here.
See it in a positive (red) light
Professor Elisabeth Flo-Groeneboom leads a research group based in Bergen, focusing on the effects of light on mood, a critical issue for people living with dementia who are at high risk of depression. One study demonstrated the potential for a circadian lighting system to support positive mood even through the dark winter months in contrast with the control group that experienced a decline. A second study focused on the specific qualities of light, noting wide variations in reaction times, errors and emotional bias in face perception between monochromatic blue, red, dim and bright white light. Interestingly, participants had fewer lapses and shorter response times in the fall compared to the spring, suggesting seasonal effects at work.
Listen to Elisabeth here, read the notes here and check out a couple of clips here.
Light as a biological substance
Trained as an architect, Dr Lenka Maierova and her team at the University of Prague work closely with the team at lighting manufacturer Spectrasol to develop bespoke lighting solutions to support their ground-breaking research. Recent projects range from retrofit circadian lighting systems in a residential care home and an intensive care cardio unit and a psychiatric ward. Her integrated design-led approach extends to sensor-activate lights positioned under the bed to assist with night-time activity with minimal disruption. Lenka measures success not only in improved melatonin levels at night but reduced levels during the day, signalling a significant consolidation in the sleep-wake cycle. The simple night-time solution increased confidence and satisfaction among staff and residents alike.
The need to deliver bright light therapy in a comfortable and relaxing setting led to the invention of a light spa, a mobile unit with a luminous sky and walls using standard diffusing panels. EEG recordings confirmed subjective evaluation of a decrease in negative affect and an improvement in positive affect in both short and sustained experimental set-ups.
Enjoy Lenka’s talk here and read the transcript here.
It’s National Clean out your Refrigerator day!
And, on a lighter note raditionally a time to make space before Thanksgiving, it might be a chance to improve the lighting in there to nudge healthier eating habits too.
There is good evidence that lighting that makes food look odd or ‘off-colour’ reduces the amount you eat, although that depends on whether you’re a man or a woman: men are more easily put off, potentially because women rely more on smell – Blue lighting decreases the amount of food consumed in men, but not in women.
So adding a blue filter to the lamp could help you resist a midnight snack.
Just clearing out the fridge will also help to keep you eating right: we tend to snack and eat more in a visually cluttered space – Situational, emotional, and individual dispositions to weight gain in people with hoarding problems.